OpenAI’s UK arm had a very good 2025. OpenAI UK Ltd reported turnover of £293 million for the year ending December 31, 2025, up from £79.2 million in 2024.
That is a nearly fourfold jump in a single year. The headline-grabbing number, though, is what it cost to employ each person in the building.
According to the company’s accounts, staff costs reached £258 million for an average workforce of 110 employees. That works out to roughly £2.3 million per head.
The numbers behind the London office
OpenAI UK posted a pre-tax profit of £31.7 million, then booked a tax charge of £11.4 million. That left a post-tax profit of £20.3 million.
Of the £258 million total staff costs, £87.4 million went to wages and salaries. A much bigger slice, £167.8 million, was share-based compensation. That is nearly double what the company spent on cash pay.
Research and development spending also climbed sharply. The UK unit spent £117.8 million on R&D in 2025, compared with £48.2 million the year before.
The accounts were prepared under UK Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and audited by Deloitte Ireland LLP. They were filed at Companies House.
Why the profit is less exciting than it looks
OpenAI UK does not make its money by selling ChatGPT subscriptions to British customers. Instead, it runs on a cost-plus recharge arrangement with its US parent, OpenAI PBC.
The UK entity does research and commercial work for the parent. The parent then reimburses those costs and adds a markup on top. The profit reflects the agreed markup rather than a measure of how well OpenAI is selling in the UK market.
London’s place in OpenAI’s map
OpenAI UK Ltd was incorporated in 2022. It serves as the company’s primary research and commercial hub outside the US.
The company has a planned headquarters move to King’s Cross. The filing describes a business adding staff and pouring money into frontier AI work, supporting OpenAI PBC on both commercial and research initiatives.
What this means
Share-based compensation of £167.8 million for roughly 110 people shows how heavily OpenAI leans on equity to hold onto talent. The parent company is reportedly eyeing a potential stock market listing at an anticipated valuation nearing $1 trillion.
The tax contribution is real but limited. An £11.4 million charge is meaningful for one subsidiary, yet the cost-plus model caps how much profit, and therefore tax, the UK entity books relative to the value its researchers may generate.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.