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There’s something distinctly American about Black Friday. But we’re not here to analyze the psychology of retail therapy or American holiday traditions — we’re here to help you find the best Black Friday deals of the year. From $1,300 discounts on award-winning LG OLED TVs to 55% discounts on Amazon devices, our professional deal hunters know where to find the top deals. We’ve been tracking prices across the internet all month long in anticipation of Black Friday, and now we can help you find the lowest possible prices on AirPods, Apple Watches, Kindles, Legos, Ninja appliances, and Samsung TVs.
Keep this page bookmarked throughout the sale as we’ll be updating this guide with the latest Black Friday deals from Amazon, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and beyond. The major players also have special lightning deals and doorbusters you won’t want to miss. No matter what you’re looking for, you’ll find the best Black Friday deals of the moment right here. Happy hunting!
Best Black Friday Apple deal
$1,149
at Amazon
$1,399
Save $250
Why we like it
Read our full review of the M4 MacBook Air.
Recommended deals for you
Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds
—
$219.99
(List Price $249.00)
Apple iPad 11″ 128GB Wi-Fi Retina Tablet (Blue, 2025 Release)
—
$274.00
(List Price $349.00)
Amazon Fire HD 10 32GB Tablet (2023 Release, Black)
—
$69.99
(List Price $139.99)
Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones
—
$248.00
(List Price $399.99)
Blink Outdoor 4 1080p Security Camera (5-Pack)
—
$159.99
(List Price $399.99)
Fire TV Stick 4K Streaming Device With Remote (2023 Model)
—
$24.99
(List Price $49.99)
Shark AV2511AE AI Robot Vacuum With XL Self-Empty Base
—
$249.99
(List Price $599.00)
Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band)
—
$339.00
(List Price $399.00)
WD 6TB My Passport USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
—
$138.65
(List Price $179.99)
Dell 14 Premium Intel Ultra 7 512GB SSD 16GB RAM 2K Laptop
—
$999.99
(List Price $1549.99)
The 13-inch MacBook Air is down to a record-low price of $749 for Black Friday this year. This is our favorite laptop for students, thanks to its M4 silicon and slim design. This markdown is so good that even if it does happen to drop lower for Cyber Monday (and we’re not counting on it), you still score a great deal without waiting for shopping chaos later this week.
More Apple deals
Best Black Friday earbuds deal
$216
at Amazon
$299
Save $83
Lowest price ever 🔥
Why we like it
Read our full review of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (Gen 2).
The Bose QC Ultra headphones and earbuds have long been some of our favorite noise-cancelling headphones. The new second-generation versions are out, and we love them even more than the original flavor. However, while the new headphones are pricey (even when they’re on sale), the new Bose earbuds have been marked down to $216, which is a lot more reasonable. These earbuds are supremely comfortable and feature elite active noise cancellation
More Black Friday headphones and earbuds deals
Best Black Friday tablet and Kindle deals
$79.99
at Amazon
$109.99
Save $30
Lowest price ever 🔥
Why we like it
What’s not to like about a $79.99 Kindle? Currently 27% off at Amazon, this Mashable-tested e-reader is at its all-time low price. We’re big fans of Kindles, and the base Kindle is a good choice for holiday gift giving. It has ample storage and a slim, lightweight design.
More Black Friday deals on tablets and Kindles
Best Black Friday TV deal
$547.99
at Walmart
$847.99
Save $300
Lowest price ever 🔥
Why we like it
“If you’re not sure what size TV to get, we consider 65 inches to be the sweet spot for most folks. While the Hisense U6 Mini LED QLED TV falls into the budget-friendly category, its specs don’t scream ‘budget’ at all. It features a Mini LED backlight system, which means it uses smaller LEDs to deliver a brighter and more detailed picture. Plus, it packs a 144Hz native refresh rate, WiFi 6 connectivity, support for HDR in Dolby Vision, the Fire TV OS, and on-board Alexa. Our friends at PCMag (also owned by Ziff Davis) called it ‘easily the brightest and most colorful budget-friendly TV we’ve tested.'” — Christina Buff, Mashable Contributor
Top Black Friday deals on The Frame
More Black Friday TV deals
-
Insignia 32-inch Class F20 Series LED HD Smart Fire TV — $69.99
$129.99(save $60) -
Amazon Fire TV 2-Series HD — $99.99
$149.99(save $50) -
TCL 55-inch F35-Series 4K — $169.99
$329.99(save $130) -
Insignia 50-inch F50 4K TV — $169.99
$299.99(save $130) -
Hisense 43-inch E6 Cinema QLED 4K TV — $177.99
$209.99(save $32) -
Hisense QD6 QLED 4K TV — $199.99
$329.99(save $130) -
Samsung 50-inch U7900 4K TV — $229.99
$329.99(save $100) -
Amazon 43-inch 4-Series 4K Fire TV — $249.99
$329.99(save $80) -
Hisense 75-inch H5 QLED 4K TV — $378
$499(save $121) -
Samsung 65-inch QN65 QLED 4K — $448
$599.99(save $151.99) -
Hisense 65-inch Class U6 Mini LED — $547.99
$847.99(save $300) -
Samsung 65-inch QN70F Neo Mini LED QLED 4K TV — $799.99
$1,199.99(save $400) -
Samsung 65-inch S84F OLED 4K TV — $899.99
$1,999.99(save $1,100) -
TCL 65-inch QM8K QD-Mini LED QLED 4K TV — $899.99
$2,499.99(save $1,600) -
Roku 75-inch Pro Series Mini LED QLED 4K TV — $997.99
$1,699.99(save $702) -
LG 65-inch B5 OLED 4K TV — $999.99
$1,999.99(save $1,000) -
Samsung 55-inch S90F Series OLED 4K TV — $1,199.99
$1,799.99(save $600) -
LG 65-inch C5 Series OLED Evo AI 4K — $1,246.99
$2,699.99(save $1,453) -
Samsung 65-Inch S90F 4K OLED — $1,397.99
$1,997.99(save $600)
More Black Friday deals on art TVs
Black Friday deals on streaming sticks
Best Black Friday kitchen deal
$269.99
at Amazon
$369.99
Save $100
Why we like it
The Ninja Slushi is a blast in any season — frozen margs in any flavor you want when it’s hot, apple cider slush or gingerbread frappé when it’s chilly. (Mashable Senior Shopping Reporter Leah Stodart loves her Slushi, and so do all of her friends.) A year after the first Slushi came out, Ninja released two larger capacity versions in a few fun colors. The 88-ounce model on sale for $229.99 at Amazon can make a slightly bigger batch than the original 72-ounce model, which is on sale for $249.99 at Walmart. $20 more for extra beverages and a chic green build? Sold. (If you want the purple one, it’s $269.99 at Target.)
SharkNinja also showed up to the Black Friday party by offering really excellent free extras. Buying the Ninja Slushi directly from Ninja for $269.99 will give you two margarita cups and a travel tote with a combined total value of $99.
More Black Friday kitchen deals
Best Black Friday smartwatch deal
$339
at Apple
$399
Save $60
Lowest price ever 🔥
Why we like it
In our Apple Watch Series 11 review, we noted that it’s largely the same as the previous-gen Series 10, but with one notable improvement: The battery life is much better. With the newest model, you’re far more likely to get a full day’s charge, as we did in our testing. And with watchOS 26 and Liquid Glass, the Apple Watch looks better than ever.
More smartwatch and fitness tracker deals
Best Black Friday home deal
Score 25% off on Brooklinen bedding and bath linens.
Why we like it
The best Black Friday deal for the home is at Brooklinen. Right now, the brand is offering 25% off across its products. You can find Brooklinen’s Super-Plush Turkish cotton bath towel bundle for just $107, saving you 30% off. All prices are as marked, so no discount code is needed. And if you’re wondering if the famous Super-Plush towels and robes are as soft and fluffy as they appear, we can verify first-hand that they are.
More Black Friday home deals
Best Black Friday Windows laptop deal
$869.99
at Amazon
$1,399.99
Save $530
Why we like it
“Microsoft’s current flagship laptop is a well-rounded machine with a virtually unrivaled 23-hour battery life, speedy everyday performance, amazing build quality, and an elegant, lightweight design. The 13.8-inch model with a Snapdragon X Elite CPU is my favorite Windows laptop for most people, and the silver model with my ideal daily driver setup (16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage) is down to an all-time low of $869.99 for Black Friday 2025.” — Haley Henschel, Senior Shopping Reporter
More Windows laptop deals
-
Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus (Intel Core i3-1315U, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) — $349
$599(save $250) -
Acer Aspire 16 AI (Snapdragon X, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $449.99
$699.99(save $250) -
Asus Zenbook A14 (Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $549.99
$999.99(save $450) -
Lenovo LOQ 15 (AMD Ryzen 7 250, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $799.99
$1,189.99(save $390) -
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (Snapdragon X Elite, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $799.99
$1,299.99(save $500)
Best Black Friday streaming deal
Works for new and returning subscribers
Why we like it
“Through Dec. 1, new and returning subscribers can get 12 months of HBO Max Basic with ads for only $2.99 per month. That’s just $35.88 total for the year. Since the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streaming service just raised the cost of its Basic with ads plan in October from $9.99 to $10.99 per month, this Black Friday deal ends up saving you $96 or 73% total across 12 months.
“The past two years, HBO Max offered just six months of streaming for $2.99 per month. So not only did it double the length of the discount in 2025, but with the price hike, you’ll actually be saving even more.” — Christina Buff, Mashable contributor
More Black Friday streaming deals
Best Black Friday beauty and grooming deal
$69.99
at Amazon
$199.99
Save $130
Lowest price ever 🔥
More Black Friday beauty deals
More Black Friday grooming deals
Best Black Friday power station deal
$349
at Amazon
$799
Save $450
Lowest price ever 🔥
Why we like it
Some of the year’s best Black Friday deals are in the power station category, where you’ll find discounts of 56% or more. And for so many reasons, this Anker Solix power station is our top pick for holiday shoppers. In our review, Mashable contributor Lauren Allain wrote that the “Anker Solix C1000 portable power station nails performance, design, and versatility,” awarding it a Mashable Choice Award. And now that it’s at a record-low price at Amazon, it’s never been easier to recommend.
More Black Friday deals on portable power stations
Best Black Friday outdoor deal
$91.99
at Amazon
$149.99
Save $58.00
Why we like it
Whether you’re shopping for outdoor deals to replenish your own gear or get a gift for the outdoorsman in your life, the best deal we’ve spotted is on the Coleman Skydome tent. This four-person tent is weatherproof, designed to block out wind and rain, and keep you dry. It’s down to $91.99 ahead of Black Friday, saving you $58 for 39% off its list price of $149.99.
Mashable Deals
More Black Friday outdoor deals
More Black Friday deals from Amazon
It’s no surprise that some of the best Black Friday deals of 2025 come from Amazon, which officially kicked off its sale on Nov. 20. The Everything store is hosting record sales on Amazon devices like Kindles and Fire TVs, but also some of our favorite products from brands like DJI, Ninja, Yeti, and Samsung. Amazon is also a great place to stock up on Christmas gifts, stocking stuffers, and deals under $25.
One of our favorite Amazon deals of the moment is this record discount on the viral Bird Buddy smart bird feeder.
$189.99
at Amazon
$299
Save $109.01
Best Black Friday Lego deal
$24.99
at Amazon
$39.99
Save $15.00
Why we like it
Imagine how great this would look on your dinosaur-obsessed kiddo’s bedside table? This year, you can find tons of discounts on Lego sets direct from Lego, but also from Walmart, Amazon, and Target. See all the best Lego deals, or check out the highlights here.
More Black Friday Lego deals
Best Black Friday gaming deal
Why we like it
We’ve seen a lot of interest in PS5 Black Friday deals this year, and over at Amazon, you can find an entire collection of bundles and PS5 consoles on sale. Our recommendation? Pick up the PS5 Fortnite Holiday Bundle for $399. Or, if you have more serious gaming needs, the PlayStation 5 Console 1TB – Fortnite Flowering Chaos Bundle for $449.
More Black Friday gaming console deals
More Black Friday gaming deals
Black Friday gaming laptop deals
-
Alienware 16-Inch Aurora — $899 $1,249.99 (save $350)
-
ASUS ROG Strix G16 — $1,424.05
$1,899.99(save $475.94) -
Acer Predator Helios Neo 18 AI — $2,049.99
$2,299.99(save $250) -
Alienware M18 — $2,107.69
$2,216.96(save $109.27) -
ASUS ROG Strix G18 — $2,109.99
$2,499.99(save $390) -
Alienware 18 Area-51 — $2,799.99
$3,499.99(save $700) -
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) — $4,099
$4,499.99(save $400.99)
Black Friday gaming monitor deals
More Black Friday Best Buy deals
Best Buy has an interesting Black Friday system: It’s been dropping new doorbusters every single Friday since Halloween. Some of those deals have stuck around, and some are fleeting. For inspiration, you can check out the Best Buy Black Friday ad scan, but we’ve also collected the best Best Buy deals of the moment, including this doorbuster TV deal on a 55-inch TCL TV.
$169.99
at Best Buy
$329.99
Save $160
Doorbuster TV Deal
All the Best Buy Black Friday doorbuster deals:
Check out more discounts from Best Buy’s Black Friday sale.
Still looking for more deals? See the biggest discounts at Amazon’s epic Black Friday sale and save up to 70% on popular gifts, gadgets, and more goodies.
Live
Latest Updates
1 minute ago | November 29, 2025
Lego doesn’t need to cost hundreds. We’ve lined up the best Lego deals for under $50 here:
26 minutes ago | November 29, 2025
Through Dec. 1, new subscribers can get the Disney+ and Hulu bundle (with ads) for only $4.99 per month for 12 months. Usually $12.99 per month, this Black Friday offer saves you $96 total for the year. If you prefer an ad-free experience, you can score a subscription for $14.99 per month for 12 months, saving you $60 for the year.
29 minutes ago | November 29, 2025
Samsung may sell the most TVs in the world, but LG’s C Series OLED TVs are certainly the most award-winning TVs in the world. Ever since the C1 OLED debuted in 2021, these OLED TVs have been collecting “Best TV of the year” awards. While the LG G5 Series OLED is now considered the flagship, its high sticker price puts it out of reach for most shoppers.
Our competitors have been writing about a “Black Friday deal” on the C5 for days, but we’ve been holding out. While Best Buy claims you can save $1,300 on this TV by paying $1,399.99, that price has been available at Amazon since October. So, we’ve been holding out in the hopes that this TV would finally get a new price drop on Black Friday, and our patience has been rewarded.
Read more here. Find this deal here.
41 minutes ago | November 29, 2025
Most of our favorite Black Friday deals are still going strong on Saturday. While select AirPods prices have gone up, most of the top deals are available. We’ve also added additional deals from Amazon, which has switched over to Cyber Monday language.
Source link
#Black #Friday #deals #Record #prices #Apple #Kindle #Lego #PS5
![This former notorious red-light district is now one of the world’s top AI hubs | TechCrunch
What every U.K. AI startup wants to know these days is, how can I get office space in King’s Cross?
The area is so hot that a VC firm allegedly recently won a deal by promising a founder office space in the neighborhood. “We stop at nothing to win deals [for] and to support” founders, “including helping them source office space when needed,” the firm told me when asked about the rumor, declining to confirm or deny any details.
The neighborhood’s popularity began back in 2016 when DeepMind — then newly acquired by Google — 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.
This has transformed King’s Cross into one of the world’s top AI hubs, rivaled only by San Francisco and Beijing. Around London, it’s known by the sobriquet “Knowledge Quarter,” as it’s 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 (ETN) just moved into a glossy new office nearby, while University College London sits around the corner.
Mixed in with the new developments are trendy food spots like Hoppers and BAO. Hop a train from King’s 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.
Who would have guessed that a little more than 20 years ago, this was one of the seediest areas in London?
“In the ’80s, crack and heroin made the area a major narcotics market,” Hussein Kanji, an investor at Hoxton Ventures, said, recalling syringes in tree trunks and gangs patrolling the streets. “In 1982, the local church was occupied by the English Collective of Prostitutes for 12 straight days.” Then, in the early 2000s, a real estate developer had a dream and, well, “now it is the AI hotbed of the United Kingdom,” Kanji said. “What a change.” Around 18 months ago, his portfolio company BioCorteX moved from the neighborhood Holborn to the Jellicoe building in King’s Cross, hoping to be near the action. “Lots going on in London right now,” Nik Sharma, co-founder of BioCorteX, told me. “Lots of hyperscalers moving in.” That includes, reportedly, Jeff Bezos’ AI company Prometheus, which is also said to be in talks to move into the Jellicoe.
There are around 3,600 AI startups in London, which, together, have raised around .1 billion out of the .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’s Cross have risen 18% over the past three years, Chris Dunn, a commercial insight associate at the firm, told me. 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%. “Demand has outstripped supply,” he continued.
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: “We’d better look after ourselves,” Saul Klein, co-founder of the VC firm Phoenix Court, told me.
Phoenix Court is located in the King’s Cross area and has three portfolio companies in the vicinity, including Olix (which just announced a .3 billion valuation), Early Health and CoMind. Robin Klein, co-founder of the firm, said the shutdown of Fable and Mythos access was a “small but sharp reminder that Europe can’t simply rent its AI capabilities and capacity; it needs to build and hold some of its own.” King’s Cross, he said, is where much of this building is actually happening.
“The bigger question,” he continued, “is 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.”
Image Credits:Phoenix Court
Top founders want to stay
Simon Kohl, founder of Latent Labs, has offices in King’s Cross and San Francisco. The London office, at the moment, is growing faster, and he’s more bullish than ever on the ecosystem, he said. “The 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,” he said. 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’s biggest success stories.
“Ten years ago, building a frontier AI company from London felt like an unusual choice,” Kendall told me. “Now it feels like an obvious one.” Wayve moved into King’s Cross in 2018 looking for a space that could double as a garage — “a rare combination in Central London,” Kendall said. He has watched the ecosystem mature around him — and it’s now evident that a startup can stay in London, raise serious capital, hire world-class AI talent, and remain globally competitive, he said. Down the street from Anthropic’s new 158,000-square-foot office is the AI agent builder Sierra and the AI video platform Synthesia.
Laura Gonzalez Florez, Synthesia’s 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: “It’s very close to the airport … very close to where a lot of investors are,” she said.
Image Credits:Synthesia
Around two-thirds of Synthesia’s engineers are remote, Gonzalez Florez said, letting the company tap into an affordable, international, and diverse talent pool and helping it scale faster. “From London, we can hire and work, without any problem, people from anywhere, from Slovenia to Portugal,” she said.
Unsurprisingly, London’s AI boom is also causing a talent war.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 £260,000 to £630,000 for a machine learning research engineer when the average salary in London for the same role is around £102,000. Some founders in the U.K., like those in Silicon Valley, are being forced to raise more and bigger rounds to keep up.
“The real test is whether more globally significant AI companies are founded, funded, and scaled from the U.K., while continuing to attract the world’s best talent to build them here,” Zain Ali, founder of the King’s Cross-based AI legal firm Centuro, told me. “If that continues to happen, King’s Cross won’t just be an AI hub. It’ll become one of the U.K.’s most important strategic assets.”
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Thisformernotorious #redlight #districtis #nowone #worlds #top #hubs #TechCrunchUK This former notorious red-light district is now one of the world’s top AI hubs | TechCrunch
What every U.K. AI startup wants to know these days is, how can I get office space in King’s Cross?
The area is so hot that a VC firm allegedly recently won a deal by promising a founder office space in the neighborhood. “We stop at nothing to win deals [for] and to support” founders, “including helping them source office space when needed,” the firm told me when asked about the rumor, declining to confirm or deny any details.
The neighborhood’s popularity began back in 2016 when DeepMind — then newly acquired by Google — 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.
This has transformed King’s Cross into one of the world’s top AI hubs, rivaled only by San Francisco and Beijing. Around London, it’s known by the sobriquet “Knowledge Quarter,” as it’s 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 (ETN) just moved into a glossy new office nearby, while University College London sits around the corner.
Mixed in with the new developments are trendy food spots like Hoppers and BAO. Hop a train from King’s 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.
Who would have guessed that a little more than 20 years ago, this was one of the seediest areas in London?
“In the ’80s, crack and heroin made the area a major narcotics market,” Hussein Kanji, an investor at Hoxton Ventures, said, recalling syringes in tree trunks and gangs patrolling the streets. “In 1982, the local church was occupied by the English Collective of Prostitutes for 12 straight days.” Then, in the early 2000s, a real estate developer had a dream and, well, “now it is the AI hotbed of the United Kingdom,” Kanji said. “What a change.” Around 18 months ago, his portfolio company BioCorteX moved from the neighborhood Holborn to the Jellicoe building in King’s Cross, hoping to be near the action. “Lots going on in London right now,” Nik Sharma, co-founder of BioCorteX, told me. “Lots of hyperscalers moving in.” That includes, reportedly, Jeff Bezos’ AI company Prometheus, which is also said to be in talks to move into the Jellicoe.
There are around 3,600 AI startups in London, which, together, have raised around .1 billion out of the .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’s Cross have risen 18% over the past three years, Chris Dunn, a commercial insight associate at the firm, told me. 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%. “Demand has outstripped supply,” he continued.
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: “We’d better look after ourselves,” Saul Klein, co-founder of the VC firm Phoenix Court, told me.
Phoenix Court is located in the King’s Cross area and has three portfolio companies in the vicinity, including Olix (which just announced a .3 billion valuation), Early Health and CoMind. Robin Klein, co-founder of the firm, said the shutdown of Fable and Mythos access was a “small but sharp reminder that Europe can’t simply rent its AI capabilities and capacity; it needs to build and hold some of its own.” King’s Cross, he said, is where much of this building is actually happening.
“The bigger question,” he continued, “is 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.”
Image Credits:Phoenix Court
Top founders want to stay
Simon Kohl, founder of Latent Labs, has offices in King’s Cross and San Francisco. The London office, at the moment, is growing faster, and he’s more bullish than ever on the ecosystem, he said. “The 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,” he said. 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’s biggest success stories.
“Ten years ago, building a frontier AI company from London felt like an unusual choice,” Kendall told me. “Now it feels like an obvious one.” Wayve moved into King’s Cross in 2018 looking for a space that could double as a garage — “a rare combination in Central London,” Kendall said. He has watched the ecosystem mature around him — and it’s now evident that a startup can stay in London, raise serious capital, hire world-class AI talent, and remain globally competitive, he said. Down the street from Anthropic’s new 158,000-square-foot office is the AI agent builder Sierra and the AI video platform Synthesia.
Laura Gonzalez Florez, Synthesia’s 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: “It’s very close to the airport … very close to where a lot of investors are,” she said.
Image Credits:Synthesia
Around two-thirds of Synthesia’s engineers are remote, Gonzalez Florez said, letting the company tap into an affordable, international, and diverse talent pool and helping it scale faster. “From London, we can hire and work, without any problem, people from anywhere, from Slovenia to Portugal,” she said.
Unsurprisingly, London’s AI boom is also causing a talent war.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 £260,000 to £630,000 for a machine learning research engineer when the average salary in London for the same role is around £102,000. Some founders in the U.K., like those in Silicon Valley, are being forced to raise more and bigger rounds to keep up.
“The real test is whether more globally significant AI companies are founded, funded, and scaled from the U.K., while continuing to attract the world’s best talent to build them here,” Zain Ali, founder of the King’s Cross-based AI legal firm Centuro, told me. “If that continues to happen, King’s Cross won’t just be an AI hub. It’ll become one of the U.K.’s most important strategic assets.”
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Thisformernotorious #redlight #districtis #nowone #worlds #top #hubs #TechCrunchUK](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/DM9A2852.jpg?w=680)

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