What every U.K. AI startup wants to know these days is, how can I get office space in King\u2019s Cross? \u00a0<\/p>\n
The area is so hot that a VC firm allegedly recently won a deal by promising a founder office space in the neighborhood. \u201cWe stop at nothing to win deals [for] and to support\u201d founders, \u201cincluding helping them source office space when needed,\u201d the firm told me when asked about the rumor, declining to confirm or deny any details.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The neighborhood\u2019s popularity began back in 2016 when DeepMind \u2014 then newly acquired by Google \u2014 moved in. Soon after, a flood of AI startups followed, wanting to be around the Google DeepMind magic. Today, they hope to take advantage of the cluster of AI talent there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This has transformed King\u2019s Cross into one of the world\u2019s top AI hubs, rivaled only by San Francisco and Beijing. Around London, it\u2019s known by the sobriquet \u201cKnowledge Quarter,\u201d as it\u2019s home to names like OpenAI, Meta, Isomorphic Labs, Cusp AI, Wayne, Recursive, and, a little farther down the road, Synthesia and Anthropic. The European Technology Network <\/a>(ETN)<\/a> just moved into a glossy new office nearby, while University College London sits around the corner. \u00a0<\/p>\n Mixed in with the new developments are trendy food spots like Hoppers and BAO. Hop a train from King\u2019s Cross, and founders can be in Cambridge in 45 minutes to source talent or can be in Paris in two hours to strike a deal. \u00a0<\/p>\n Who would have guessed that a little more than 20 years ago, this was one of the seediest areas in London? \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn the \u201980s, crack and heroin made the area a major narcotics market,\u201d Hussein Kanji, an investor at Hoxton Ventures, said, recalling syringes in tree trunks and gangs patrolling the streets. \u201cIn 1982, the local church was occupied by the English Collective of Prostitutes for 12 straight days.\u201d Then, in the early 2000s, a real estate developer had a dream and, well, \u201cnow it is the AI hotbed of the United Kingdom,\u201d Kanji said. \u201cWhat a change.\u201d\u00a0 There are around 3,600 AI startups in London<\/a>, which, together, have raised around $12.1 billion out of the $14.8 billion raised in the city since late July, according to Dealroom. Since the start of June, AI-related startups have leased more than 1 million square feet of office space in London, according to the real estate firm Knight Frank. With that, prime rents in King\u2019s Cross have risen 18% over the past three years, Chris Dunn, a commercial insight associate at the firm, told me.\u00a0 Today, one of the big topics of the area is sovereignty. It was a wake-up call for many when Anthropic shut off access to Mythos and Fable this summer, leaving some in the ecosystem to conclude: \u201cWe\u2019d better look after ourselves,\u201d Saul Klein, co-founder of the VC firm Phoenix Court, told me. \u00a0<\/p>\n Phoenix Court is located in the King\u2019s Cross area and has three portfolio companies in the vicinity, including Olix (which just announced a $3.3 billion valuation<\/a>), Early Health and CoMind. Robin Klein, co-founder of the firm, said the shutdown of Fable and Mythos access was a \u201csmall but sharp reminder that Europe can\u2019t simply rent its AI capabilities and capacity; it needs to build and hold some of its own.\u201d King\u2019s Cross, he said, is where much of this building is actually happening. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe bigger question,\u201d he continued, \u201cis whether the U.K. builds the infrastructure, compute, energy, capital, to make this self-reliance durable, rather than just hosting outposts of U.S. labs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Simon Kohl, founder of Latent Labs, has offices in King\u2019s Cross and San Francisco. The London office, at the moment, is growing faster, and he\u2019s more bullish than ever on the ecosystem, he said. \u201cThe mood right now feels less like London trying to catch up and more like London becoming one of the default places to start a serious AI company,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cTen years ago, building a frontier AI company from London felt like an unusual choice,\u201d Kendall told me. \u201cNow it feels like an obvious one.\u201d Wayve moved into King\u2019s Cross in 2018 looking for a space that could double as a garage \u2014 \u201ca rare combination in Central London,\u201d Kendall said. He has watched the ecosystem mature around him \u2014 and it\u2019s now evident that a startup can stay in London, raise serious capital, hire world-class AI talent, and remain<\/span> globally competitive, he said.\u00a0 Laura Gonzalez Florez, Synthesia\u2019s chief of staff and head of people, says the company moved into its glossy new office building a year ago to accommodate its growing team. They were drawn to the area for the same reason as everyone else: \u201cIt\u2019s very close to the airport\u00a0\u2026 very close to where a lot of investors are,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Around two-thirds of Synthesia\u2019s engineers are remote, Gonzalez Florez said, letting the company tap into an affordable, international, and diverse talent pool and helping it scale faster. \u201cFrom London, we can hire and work, without any problem, people from anywhere, from Slovenia to Portugal,\u201d she said. \u00a0<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, London\u2019s AI boom is also causing a talent war.<\/p>\n U.K. AI job postings have skyrocketed in the past few years, per data from PwC. When Anthropic announced it moved into town earlier this year, it listed, for example, a salary range of \u00a3260,000 to \u00a3630,000<\/a> for a machine learning research engineer when the average salary in London for the same role is around \u00a3102,000<\/a>. Some founders in the U.K., like those in Silicon Valley, are being forced to raise more and bigger rounds<\/a> to keep up.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe real test is whether more globally significant AI companies are founded, funded, and scaled from the U.K., while continuing to attract the world\u2019s best talent to build them here,\u201d Zain Ali, founder of the King\u2019s Cross-based AI legal firm Centuro, told me. \u201cIf that continues to happen, King\u2019s Cross won\u2019t just be an AI hub. It\u2019ll become one of the U.K.\u2019s most important strategic assets.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n
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Around 18 months ago, his portfolio company BioCorteX moved from the neighborhood Holborn to the Jellicoe building in King\u2019s Cross, hoping to be near the action. \u201cLots going on in London right now,\u201d Nik Sharma, co-founder of BioCorteX, told me. \u201cLots of hyperscalers moving in.\u201d That includes, reportedly, Jeff Bezos\u2019 AI company Prometheus, which is also said to be in talks <\/a>to move into the Jellicoe. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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That percentage represents only the largest leases encompassing at least 10,000 square feet, like the ones OpenAI and Prometheus are signing. The shorter deals go for even more, he said, and now the vacancy rate for conventional office space is just 0.9%. \u201cDemand has outstripped supply,\u201d he continued. \u00a0<\/p>\nTop founders want to stay <\/h2>\n
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Look around and you are likely to see Wayve testing its autonomous cars. Founded in 2017 by co-founder Alex Kendall, the unicorn is one of London\u2019s biggest success stories. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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Down the street from Anthropic\u2019s new 158,000-square-foot office is the AI agent builder Sierra and the AI video platform Synthesia.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Synthesia-London-HQ-5.jpg?w=680\")