It was the worst-kept secret in U.K. tech. For months, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had been wooing Sam Altman’s OpenAI, trying to coax the San Francisco–based artificial intelligence firm into opening its first non-U.S. office in London. Then, in early June, two weeks after Altman met with Sunak in his official residence at No. 10 Downing Street, the U.K. government published a press release that claimed OpenAI had already opened its London outpost the month before.

U.K. representatives did not respond to questions about whether this was a typo or a spoiler, but the confidence of their pronouncement—which preceded OpenAI’s official announcement this Wednesday by nearly three weeks—spoke to a newfound confidence emanating from the British Isles.