Things are looking bright for those who want to nab a great TV in 2025 at a substantial discount. There’s usually a great deal happening on a mid- or high-end TV from LG, Sony, TCL, Hisense, or Amazon’s own Fire TV brand — even if the biggest discounts remain reserved for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Amazon Prime Day, and during the lead-up to the Super Bowl.
Right now, there are a number of discounted 4K TVs to choose from, spanning a wide variety of prices, sizes, and feature sets. Whether you want a secondary screen for the bedroom or a high-end OLED that’s built to provide the ultimate gaming or cinematic experience, we’ve picked out the best TV deals.
The best 4K TV deals for most people
Samsung’s Q8F is available for an all-time low of $599.99 ($150 off) at Amazon and Best Buy for the 55-inch model, which is a solid value for a QLED 4K TV. Its quantum dot LED panel boasts great contrast (especially in HDR content). The Q8F has a 120Hz panel and four HDMI 2.0 ports. This means you can play in 4K at up to 60Hz with a Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series S/X, or a PlayStation 5 Pro, or at a faster 120Hz refresh rate bumped down to 1440p resolution. Samsung is also including two free months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with purchase, which will allow you to stream games directly to your TV through the cloud, eliminating the need for a console.
The TV is powered by Samsung’s Q4 AI processor, which is used to upscale HD video to 4K when necessary, to optimize the picture in real-time, and make navigating its interface feel snappy. Samsung also touts the Q8F’s audio system, which adjusts the EQ and boost dialogue volume when needed. If you’ve cut the cord with cable, you can watch over 2,700 free channels of TV (over 400 of which are exclusive to Samsung TVs) in addition to streaming services. You can save $402 by jumping up to the 85-inch model, which is on sale for around $1,597.99 at Amazon and Best Buy.
If you’re looking for a 65-inch TV for watching sports, TV shows, movies, or playing video games, Hisense’s U65QF is a great choice, one you can currently purchase at Amazon and Best Buy for an all-time low of around $596.99 ($403 off). The TV features a native 144Hz refresh rate and two HDMI 2.1 ports, both of which can take full advantage of the high-speed display. It also sports a pair of HDMI 2.0 ports — which can carry a 4K signal at up to 60Hz — and a port assortment that makes it a good choice for current-gen consoles, 4K Blu-ray players, and streaming devices. If you connect a gaming PC with an AMD graphics card, you can even take advantage of the TV’s support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, which reduces graphical glitches such as screen tearing.
The U65QF has an LED screen, which means it can’t match the black levels or per-pixel brightness control you’d get with an OLED display. However, its full array lighting panel offers 300 local dimming zones. The TV can control the brightness of each zone to reduce blooming, which is what happens when the area around a bright object (think a lit torch in a cave) looks unnaturally bright. Additionally, the TV has a maximum brightness of 1,000 nits, so the image it produces should look good even in a room with some light interference. The U65QF also supports Dolby Vision, HLG, and HDR10 Plus for better color reproduction, and it features a Hi-View AI chip that automatically processes the image on screen so that it appears sharper.
As for its operating system, Hisense’s U65QF runs on Amazon’s Fire OS and features Amazon Alexa built in. You can use the smart assistant to control the TV’s many functions, search for content, control compatible smart home accessories, and look up answers to various questions with your voice. If you want an even larger screen, you can also pick up a 75-inch model for around $797.99 ($502 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.
The best 4K TV deals for those on a budget
Amazon’s Fire TV 4-Series is an affordable option if you want to upgrade a smaller HDTV to a 4K model. The 50-inch model is currently on sale for $289.99 ($110 off) at Amazon. The TV features an LED panel with a 60Hz refresh rate and support for HDR10 / HLG, which is totally sufficient for casual TV viewing or watching movies and TV shows. It runs Fire OS, and comes with a remote that allows you to summon Amazon Alexa with the push of a button for a query or command. You can step up to a 55-inch model for $359.99 ($100 off) if you like its modest feature set but want a slightly larger screen.
If your budget is under $500, the 55-inch Hisense QD7 has a lot to offer, especially now that it’s on sale for an all-time low of around $357.99 ($132 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. It features a QLED panel that can deliver more contrast and brightness than a typical LED TV, with support for HDR10 Plus and Dolby Vision, with a peak brightness of 600 nits. The 4K set features a processor capable of AI upscaling and full array local dimming with 160 local dimming zones. A panel with full array local dimming offers better control of brightness and contrast than direct- or edge-lit LED panels (this video from LG shows how it works), providing a more consistent picture across the entire screen. The QD7’s obvious weak point is gaming, due to its 60Hz refresh rate, but if that’s not important to you, it remains a superb value. If you want a larger TV, you can get a 65-inch model for around $467.99 ($132 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.
The best deals on high-end 4K TVs
If you want a TV that produces reference-quality images, Sony’s Bravia 8 II (K65XR80M2) is the best choice. It was recently selected as the top TV in Valve Electronics’ 10th annual TV Shootout based on objective and subjective tests conducted by a panel of experts comparing each set to the image on a $43,000 reference monitor. Disclosure: Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel was one of the judges. The 55-inch model also recently received a substantial price cut, dropping it to $2,198.99 ($801 off) at Amazon.
Sony’s premium set has a 120Hz refresh rate panel, with two HDMI 2.1 ports that support 4K at 120Hz, and two HDMI 2.0 ports that top out at 4K / 60Hz. It doesn’t support Nvidia’s G-Sync or AMD’s FreeSync Pro, so there aren’t any specific features on this TV that PC gamers can take advantage of. Sony calls the Bravia 8 II its brightest OLED screen yet, and testing conducted by Hometheaterreview found its maximum brightness was 1,880 nits when viewing HDR content. Its predecessor topped out at 1,300 nits HDR video, or roughly 44 percent dimmer.
The TV runs on Sony’s XR processor, which uses AI to adjust the color, contrast, and clarity of whatever you’re watching in real time to look better. The judges in the aforementioned TV Shootout chose Sony’s set as the best model for SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) processing, but third of four models compared for HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing. Any OLED TV can show true black, but judges agreed that the Bravia 8 II pulled ahead in grayscale and contrast when viewing SDR video.
Sony says its TV has modes calibrated for Netflix, Prime Video, and its own Sony Pictures Core streaming services, too. Sony Picture Core is a streaming service that’s available on select Bravia TVs and Sony gaming consoles, and allows you to stream or download 4K movies at far higher bitrates than competing services. The Bravia 8 II comes with 10 credits, which you can use to download movies for offline viewing, and two years of unlimited streaming for films in its catalogue.
If you want this TV in a larger size, Amazon and B&H Photo are offering the 65-inch model for around $2,998 ($501 off).
The last-gen LG C4 remains one of the best OLED TVs you can buy, and the 65-inch model is currently on sale for around $1,396.99 ($1,303 off) at Amazon, B&H Photo, and Best Buy. Like LG’s newer C5 OLED, it has a 120Hz panel with support for VRR, Nvidia G-Sync, and AMD FreeSync Premium (the option exists to enable a 144Hz mode if you dig in the TV’s options). Its embedded A9 AI Processor Gen7 offers higher-quality video upscaling and image optimization compared to the C3. The biggest difference between the C4 and C5 is their maximum brightness. The C4 tops out at an advertised 1,000 nits, while the C5 tops out at around 1,165 according to tests conducted by Tom’s Guide.
Additionally, the C4 features a three-channel audio system, which might sound impressive compared to other TVs, but still can’t compete with a soundbar. When you’re not watching videos or playing games, you can also enable the C4’s Gallery Mode to display art. Basically, the LG C4 offers many of the same features as the C5, but retails for nearly $400 less. You can also save on the 77-inch model, which is on sale for around $1,799.96 ($1,900 off) at Best Buy and Amazon.
Sony’s 42-inch A90K is a premium OLED TV that it claims is specially optimized with features for gaming on a PlayStation 5, but realistically, all of the TVs in this list work great with the PS5 — not to mention all other modern consoles. It’s currently on sale for around $1,198 ($102 off) at Amazon, B&H Photo, and Best Buy. The TV has a 120Hz panel, with two HDMI 2.0 ports and HDMI 2.1 ports.
About the special PS5 features, if you connect the console to the A90K, the TV will automatically enable Auto HDR Tone Mapping for more accurate colors, along with an Auto Genre Picture Mode that will adjust its settings based on the game you’re playing. Sony’s Cognitive Processor XR automatically adjusts the TV’s contrast, brightness, and colors.
The A90K can access Sony Pictures Core, a movie streaming platform exclusive to higher-end Sony TVs that allows you to watch uncompressed 4K movies. Sony includes 10 credits to build your Sony Pictures Core library, plus 24 months of streaming access. The aforementioned library is more limited than other streaming services, but it’s the closest you’ll get to watching a 4K Blu-ray without having to pop in a disc. Sony also offers the A90K in a 48-inch size, and you can pick one up at Amazon and Best Buy for around $1,298 ($102 off).
Sony’s 55-inch A95L is a premium TV with features that should appeal to gamers and cinephiles alike, and you can get it for around $2,198 ($601 off) at Amazon, B&H Photo, and Best Buy. The TV has a 120Hz panel and two HDMI 2.1 ports (four HDMI ports total), so you can play games in 4K at up to 120 frames per second. Its two HDMI 2.0 ports are fine for last-gen consoles like the original Nintendo Switch. If you connect a PS5, the TV will adjust its video settings based on the genre of game you’re playing, which is a nice touch, but games on that console will look incredible on any OLED set.
Sony’s Cognitive Processor XR powers the A95L, which enables better motion processing so sports and games look less blurry. It also claims to improve the contrast and colors compared to previous generation Sony TVs. It has a peak brightness of 1,300 nits according to lab tests by Tom’s Guide, which is higher than most of the other OLED TVs we found on sale.
The A95L is a Bravia-series TV, which means it can access Sony’s Picture Core. This video on demand service has the highest-bitrate (aka video quality) of any streaming platform, which means what you watch will look closer to an uncompressed 4K Blu-ray than a 4K stream from Netflix. Its library is limited, but Sony includes 10 credits with A95L, so you can download movies to keep forever, and a 24-month subscription that lets you stream videos from the library.
If you want a higher-end OLED TV, Sony’s A95L is a great choice and has features you won’t find on non-Sony TVs. You can also get the 65-inch model on sale for around $2,898 ($601 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo.
Update, September 3rd: Updated pricing / availability and added newer deals for Samsung’s Q8F and Hisense’s U65QF.
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![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 "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://i0.wp.com/techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/DM9A2852.jpg?w=680&ssl=1 "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.”
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