Looking to fuel up your Netflix queue with some high-octane action?
Whether you’re a fan of wild Westerns, cunning detectives, high-swinging superheroes, ravenous zombies, rowdy thieves, or hard-hitting heroines, Netflix has a movie pitch-perfect for every kind of adrenaline seeker.
We know scrolling through the streaming app can be a chore when all you want to do is Netflix and chill. So, we’ve taken out the hard step by highlighting the most stunt-stuffed, battle-powered, high-speed films the streamer has to offer.
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Here are the 24 best action movies on Netflix, streaming right now.
25. Back in Action
Aptly titled, Back in Action not only refers to the plotline of this charming espionage comedy but also the return of its stars to the spotlight.
Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz co-star as a couple of spies who fake their deaths to flee their dangerous jobs once they learn they’ve got a baby on the way. Cut to 15 years later, when they’re middle-aged with a cozy suburban life that’s interrupted by an unexpected visit from some former colleagues. To keep their kids safe, they’ll need to go on one more mission. And things get pretty zany — and yeah, corny too. But there’s an undeniable pleasure in watching Diaz and Foxx bounce off each other’s energy.
In my review for Mashable, I wrote, “Don’t overthink it. Turn on Back in Action, and allow the star power and nostalgia for the heyday of ’90s rom-coms, the peak of Cameron Diaz fame, and the fun of all that wash over you.”* — Kristy Puchko, Entertainment Editor
How to watch: Back in Action is now streaming on Netflix.
24. Train to Busan
Like your action with a blood-splashed buffet of horror? You, my fright-seeking friend, will love Train to Busan.
This South Korean horror thriller imagines what would happen if a zombie outbreak hit a rail train full of average people. Directed by Yeon Sang-ho, Train to Busan focuses on a workaholic father who’s taking the train with his young daughter to spend her birthday with his ex-wife in Busan. But this dad will have to prove himself when their fellow passengers become flesh-craving, limb-contorting beasts. The action sequences on this journey are nerve-shreddingly intense, thanks to a clever use of contortionists and the screen presence of South Korean action star Don Lee. You’ll never look at a train — or a flight of escalators — the same way again. — K.P.
How to watch: Train to Busan is now streaming on Netflix.
23. Fast Five
Netflix has a collection of Fast and Furious movies now streaming to choose from. Some might say if we can only pick one to put on this list, we should advise you to start with the 2001 kickoff, The Fast and the Furious. But let’s get real: Fast Five is when these movies went from fun to unmissable cinema!
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By this fifth installment of the high-octane action franchise, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) is an internationally known car thief with a heist crew that can do the impossible for the right price or cause. (Spoiler: The right cause is always family.) In Fast Five, they face off against a dangerous crime lord and a relentless United States Diplomatic Security Service agent who’s built like a brick wall. His name is Luke Hobbs, and of course he’s played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Their face-off would fuel the next wave of totally bonkers sequels. Treat yourself, watch ’em all and let your eyes pop, your heart race, and your pulse run like it’s chasing a bank vault barreling down a highway. — K.P.
How to watch: Fast Five is now streaming on Netflix.
22. Upgrade
The always-welcome Logan Marshall-Green stars here as Grey, an auto mechanic who gets sucked into a nefarious world of cyber-horror when a car crash leaves him paralyzed and his wife dead. Implanted with an untested computer chip that can control his limbs and “fix” his paralysis, Grey’s mind starts communicating with the technology, which in turns starts egging him on. After all, why just walk when you can be a kick-ass super-soldier? Needless to say, as in any good RoboCop spin, the corporations are not to be trusted when it comes to our best interests. — Jason Adams, Contributing Writer
How to watch: Upgrade is now streaming on Netflix.
21. Land of Bad
Land of Bad seems fairly generic at first glance. A ragtag group of soldiers (portrayed by both Liam Hemsworth and Luke Hemsworth, American Gods star Ricky Whittle, and former Gilmore guy Milo Ventimiglia) find themselves stranded behind enemy territory in the Philippines and they must, you know, get the heck out of there. Russell Crowe plays “Reaper,” a drone pilot who provides air support to the group on the ground by yelling into a telephone a lot. This is nothing we’ve not seen before!
And yet the movie’s actually a solid B-movie slice of old-fashioned action movie entertainment. The film is directed and co-written by William Eubank, whose previous credits include one of the most underrated action-thrillers of recent times, 2020’s Underwater with Kristen Stewart. Like that film, Land of Bad doesn’t rewrite its genre, but it does bring the action and thrills efficiently and well. — J.A.
How to watch: Land of Bad is now streaming on Netflix.
20. Tenet
Is Tenet Christopher Nolan’s best movie? No. Does it still go unbelievably hard? Absolutely, it does. This topsy-turvy spy thriller introduces a former CIA agent known simply as the Protagonist (John David Washington), who finds himself thrown into a quest to save the present from an attack from the future. How is this possible? By moving backwards through time.
Tenet‘s inverted time fight sequences are among the most technically impressive of Nolan’s career. They pit the Protagonist against fighters battling him in reverse, and give us chases between cars moving backwards and forwards in time. Even if you get lost in the weeds with some of Tenet‘s timey-wimey shenanigans, it’s undoubtedly a slick, mesmerizing watch. — Belen Edwards, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Tenet is now streaming on Netflix.
19. Kraven the Hunter
Okay. So you’re probably thinking, “Why is a movie with a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes on a best-of list? Is Netflix really so thin on good action?!” I hear you. But look, while Kraven the Hunter is not a great film, or even a good one, it is wildly fun. And the action is a major part of that!
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This Spider-Man spinoff centers on the comic book villain Kraven the Hunter (Aaron Johnson), but makes him less a poacher and more a bad-guy hunting vigilante. And along the way, there’s other Spidey characters haphazardly looped in, like Aleksei “The Rhino” Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola), Calypso (Ariana DeBose), and The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott). But the real fun comes in some fight scenes so violent that Sony’s sheer reckless rebellion in the face of MCU PG-13 standards is worth the watch. Like, Kraven bites off a dude’s nose. And that’s not the climax of a fight. Come on. You want to watch that. — K.P.
How to watch: Kraven the Hunter is now streaming on Netflix.
18. The Union
Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry team up for an action-comedy that is surprisingly charming! He’s a Boston everyman who works construction by day and by night hooks up with local hotties (including his former seventh-grade English teacher). She’s a globe-trekking secret agent — and his high school girlfriend — who shows up at their old dive bar out of the blue to invite him in on a secret mission. Together, they’re working for The Union.
Explosive espionage action blends with rom-com chemistry as Wahlberg and Berry delve into car chases, gun fights, and plenty of bouncy banter. J.K. Simmons brings gruff bravado, while Evil‘s Mike Colter delivers breathtaking swagger. Full of thrills, fun, and verve, The Union is a great pick for movie night at home.* — K.P.
How to watch: The Union is now streaming on Netflix.
17. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Coming back onto the scene 30 years after Beverly Hills Cop III flopped, this fourth installment of the comedic crime-solving adventures of Detroit police officer Axel Foley has no right to be as good as it is. Not only did screenwriters Will Beall, Tom Gormican, and Kevin Etten have to manage how public opinion has shifted when it comes to cops who play by their own rules, but also how to approach Axel’s wise-cracking sense of humor that traditionally put just about everyone in its crosshairs. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F manages both in a way that gives fresh life to the character without casting aside the fans who loved his wild ways.
As I wrote in my rave review, “Eddie Murphy is as good as ever as Axel Foley.” Plus, he’s got his old friends, like John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot back and in action. It’s an absolute blast to see all these energies colliding, and yet there’s room for newcomers, like the dynamic Taylour Paige and the ever-solid Joseph Gordon-Levitt, both of whom prove to be compelling foils to the ever-quipping Murphy. “In the end, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F isn’t just a great sequel, or an awesome action-comedy; it might just be the most entertaining movie of [2024].”* — K.P.
How to watch: Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is now streaming on Netflix.
16. Jaws
Credit: HA / THA / Shutterstock
In 1975, Steven Spielberg gave rise to the blockbuster with this iconic creature feature. Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss star as an unlikely trio of local sheriff, sea captain, and shark expert. Together, they brave the waters off Amity Island to do battle with a man-eating great white shark.
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Though not as action-packed as today’s blockbusters, this nerve-rattling adaptation of Peter Benchley’s beach read was scary enough to drive audiences wild and turn the tide of shark sentiment against the ancient creature for decades. Yet nothing in the fear-mongering Shark Week can compete with action of man versus sea beast that goes down here. And every time you’ll be tempted to cheer when Brody snarls, “Smile, you sonovabitch!” — K.P.
How to watch: Jaws is now streaming on Netflix.
15. Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Credit: Frank Masi / Sony Pictures
Nearly 30 years after their first adventure as cop buddies Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are back with the Bad Boys’ franchise’s fourth installment. Bad Boys For Life co-helmers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah also returned, bringing their high-octane brand of action into a stunt-packed epic about loyalty and redemption.
When the late Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) gets dragged for alleged ties to corruption, it’s up to Mike and Marcus to find the truth and clear his name. In her review of this action-comedy, Mashable contributor Monica Castillo praised this rousing return, writing, “Bad Boys: Ride or Die is an entertaining reminder of what made the original movie work all those years ago.” — K.P.
How to watch: Bad Boys: Ride or Die is now streaming on Netflix.
14. Damsel
Credit: John Wilson / Netflix
Netflix has invested big in Millie Bobby Brown. Not only has the English ingenue been leading Stranger Things for years, but also she’s becoming an outright action star through movies she has headlined and produced for the streamer, including a pair of Enola Holmes adventures and the fearsome fairy tale Damsel. Here, Brown stars as Elodie, a dutiful damsel destined to wed a handsome prince (Nick Robinson)! But rather than happily ever after, her deceitful groom pitches her into a dragon’s pit. However, that’s far from the end of her story. She’ll fight her way to salvation and vengeance, one fiery sequence at a time.
In her review, Mashable’s Belen Edwards wrote, “Boasting some inventive twists and a heartfelt lead performance from Brown, Damsel may not be groundbreaking fantasy, but it is a thrilling ride.” — K.P.
How to watch: Damsel is now streaming on Netflix.
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13. KPop Demon Hunters
Officially the most popular Netflix original movie of all time, KPop Demon Hunters delivers a little bit of everything: romance, action, comedy, and a totally addictive soundtrack.
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The story stars with K-pop trio HUNTR/X, who, when they aren’t making bops like “Golden,” are battling demons to protect the very souls of their fans. But just as they think they’re on the verge of building an impenetrable barrier with their songs, the demons fight back with a boy band of their own. The Saja Boys are comically hot, delivering smooth moves, devious plans, and plenty of slapstick. Plus, they’ve got a tiger, who is cute, creepy, and silly to boot! Whether it’s the martial arts action sequences, the swoon-worthy song-and-dance numbers, or the cheeky sense of humor that’s grabbed fans of all ages, KPop Demon Hunters is sure to thrill. And hey, now there’s a sing-along version too. — K.P.
How to watch: KPop Demon Hunters is now streaming on Netflix.
12. The Harder They Fall
Credit: David Lee / Netflix
Put ’em up, as this is hands-down one of the best action movies in the Wild West.
Directed by Jeymes Samuel, The Harder They Fall defiantly redefines the predominantly white Western, boasting an incredible cast of Black stars: Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Regina King, Zazie Beetz, LaKeith Stanfield, and Delroy Lindo. A tale of heroes and villains, the film follows Nat Love (Majors) on his quest for revenge against the formidable Rufus Buck (Elba). But he’ll have to make his gunslinging way through “Treacherous” Trudy Smith (Regina King) and Cherokee Bill (Stanfield) first. Even before the opening credits roll, you’ll fall hard for this one. — Shannon Connellan, UK Editor
How to watch: The Harder They Fall is now streaming on Netflix.
11. Enola Holmes
Credit: Netflix
Sherlock Holmes’s much cooler little sister is an overlooked young action hero in Enola Holmes. Based on author Nancy Springer’s popular book series The Enola Holmes Mysteries, the film puts the great detective’s savvy 16-year-old sibling on the case, played with energetic spoonfuls of gumption by Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown. She’s set to solve the greatest mystery of her young life: to find her missing mother (Helena Bonham Carter) through a series of deliberately cryptic clues — all while breaking the fourth wall and confiding in the audience, thanks to Fleabag director Harry Bradbeer and His Dark Materials‘ Jack Thorne’s sharp screenplay.
Stepping into the footsteps of her famous brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and avoiding those of her stuffier misogynist brother Mycroft (Sam Claflin), Enola’s case leads her on a wild ride through Victorian-era England, with more than a few fistfights and butts to kick along the way. And lucky for you, the sequel is even better. — S.C.
How to watch: Enola Holmes is now streaming on Netflix.
10. They Cloned Tyrone
Credit: Netflix
With this 2023 release, co-writer/director Juel Taylor pulls plenty of inspiration from Blaxploitation. John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, and Teyonah Parris star as a drug dealer, a pimp, and a sex worker who undercover a nefarious conspiracy that’s happening underneath their neighborhood. Taylor and fellow screenwriter Tony Rettenmaier weave in wild twists, fly fight scenes, irreverent humor, and swaggering style for what our critic called “a propulsive comedy-thriller with weight.” As bold as it is star-studded, you won’t want to miss They Cloned Tyrone. And stay for the credits, trust us. — K.P.
How to watch: They Cloned Tyrone is now streaming on Netflix.
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9. Kill Boksoon
Credit: No Ju-han / Netflix
Gil Bok-Soon (Jeon Do-yeon) is a single mother who often finds herself at odds with her teenage daughter. She’s also a highly skilled and successful assassin. Kill Boksoon is a fantastic action film that sees its main character head straight from a brutal killing to the grocery store so she can get dinner on the table. It’s one hell of a hook that sucks you in immediately. The fight scenes are hypnotic and the cinematography ambitious and exciting. It’s a gripping thriller that makes plenty of space for the complex emotional reality of its characters.* — Kristina Grosspietsch, Freelance Contributor
How to watch: Kill Boksoon is now streaming on Netflix.
8. Triple Frontier
Credit: Netflix
This Netflix adventure has Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal coming together as a group of former Special Forces who plan an elaborate heist in South America. But after things get out of hand, their survival skills are put to the ultimate test.
Putting a talented cast in a tension-filled scenario, Triple Frontier is the type of gritty thriller that’s hard to turn away from. — Brooke Bajgrowicz, Entertainment Fellow
How to watch: Triple Frontier is now streaming on Netflix.
7. Okja
Credit: Netflix
Blending drama with fantasy/adventure and weaving in a very real message about the horrors of the meat industry, Bong Joon Ho’s Okja is a beautifully unique creature feature, striped with action.
The film follows Mina (Ahn Seo-hyun), the granddaughter of a farmer in South Korea who has spent the last 10 years rearing a genetically modified super-pig called Okja as part of a breeding project spearheaded by a grim U.S. corporation. This movie is dark in places, magical in others, and poignant overall, asking us to stop and reflect on the dark side of an industry the majority of us are complicit in. Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal make for an entertaining pair of villains, too.* — Sam Haysom, Deputy UK Editor
How to watch: Okja is now streaming on Netflix.
6. Da 5 Bloods
Credit: Netflix
Spike Lee copters audiences back to the Vietnam War with Da 5 Bloods, a daring film that’s part drama, part war movie, and part heist flick. Named for a squad of Black U.S. Army soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division, Lee’s critically heralded 2020 joint follows this band of brothers through a treacherous war zone, then rediscovers them in a present where they’re seeking to uncover the past — and a big payday.
Sequences of brutal battles, narrow escapes, and high-tension hijinks make Da 5 Bloods an enthralling watch. Though inspired by history, it’s impossible to predict where Lee’s story will lead. Our guides on this intense journey through time, loss, war, and brotherhood are Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., and the late Chadwick Boseman. Together, they and Lee create an American war film that can’t be missed. — K.P.
How to watch: Da 5 Bloods is now streaming on Netflix.
5. Army of the Dead
Credit: Netflix
Sometimes all you want is to grab hold of that action-o-meter and crank the dial, hard, to a solid 11. Army of the Dead more than delivers on that front, opening with a musical montage of guns and exploding body parts — and it only gets gorier from there. Zack Snyder’s story follows a band of mercenaries hired to steal $200 million from a casino in Las Vegas. The problem? Vegas has been invaded by zombies, the city is quarantined, and the military is planning to blow the entire thing up with a tactical nuclear strike. The sprawling cast includes Dave Bautista, Omari Hardwick, Hiroyuki Sanada, Garret Dillahunt, and Ana de la Reguera, as well as a digitally added Tig Notaro.
What follows is a gloriously silly romp that refuses to take itself too seriously, propelling us through a series of explosions and bullets while the story twists and turns through a 148-minute runtime that feels oh, so much shorter. — S.H.
How to watch: Army of the Dead is now streaming on Netflix.
4. The Old Guard
Credit: Netflix
Folks looking for that summer blockbuster thrill, search no further than The Old Guard. Based on the superhero comic books of the same name, director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s movie sucks viewers into a slick, well-crafted world of action and narrative that isn’t particularly unique but delivers its formulaic pieces with enough precision to keep you invested.
Charlize Theron crushes as the ass-kicking leader of an immortal warrior fight crew, with performances by Harry Melling, Marwan Kenzari, KiKi Layne, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Veronica Ngo, Matthias Schoenaerts, and more.* — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: The Old Guard is now streaming on Netflix.
3. RRR
You’ve never seen an action movie quite as bombastic or as bromantic as RRR. Director S.S. Rajamouli draws loosely from history to tell the story of Indian freedom fighters Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.). Over the film’s three-hour runtime, the two unwittingly face off in the search for a kidnapped girl, become the best of friends, and square off against villainous English colonizers.
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Was ‘RRR’ snubbed at the Oscars?
Any of RRR‘s action sequences would be the pinnacle of a lesser action movie, but the film seems determined to outdo itself with showstopper after showstopper. Take when Raju faces down hundreds of protesters and wins, or when Bheem fights a tiger bare-handed. Would you believe me if I told you those happen within the first 20 minutes? The action — and the movie — only get more awesome from there. — B.E.
How to watch: RRR is now streaming on Netflix.
2. Jurassic Park
Credit: Amblin / Universal / Kobal / Shutterstock
Adapted from Michael Crichton’s science-gone-awry novel of the same name, Jurassic Park offers audiences an exhilarating — and sometimes terrifying — tour through an amusement park where dinosaurs roam and hunt. At first, this seems like a dream come true to paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern). But once the Tyrannosaurus rex gets loose, this walk in the park becomes a real nightmare.
Director Steven Spielberg awed audiences not only with the Academy Award–winning visual effects that resurrected long-extinct dinos, but also with masterfully paced action sequences. Many of these are nail-biting escape scenes, with the human heroes fleeing the jaws and claws of apex predators. Thanks to captivating characters, life-or-death stakes, and clever girls, Jurassic Park was a showpiece that had critics and audiences roaring with excitement. Simply put, this 1993 blockbuster hasn’t aged a day.
How to watch: Jurassic Park is now streaming on Netflix.
1. Godzilla Minus One
Credit: Toho Company Ltd / Everett / Shutterstock.com
You don’t know Godzilla until you see Godzilla Minus One. The American movies featuring the classic kaiju go for huge monster-versus-monster face-offs, bogged down by tedious human characters. But writer/director Takashi Yamazaki reclaims the Japanese icon with a movie that gets the balance between rampaging monster action and human drama just right.
Set near the close of World War II, Godzilla Minus One proves a fascinating tale of atomic age terror. Ryunosuke Kamiki stars as a kamikaze pilot who first flubs his mission, then crosses paths with the giant lizard with atomic breath. Survivor’s guilt torments him, even as he cobbles together a found family of fellow survivors. This cast of characters is dynamic, making the scenes of simple home-cooked meals just as satisfying as sequences of town-trampling destruction. Actually, one deeply informs the other. Because while the movie’s jaw-dropping special effects rightfully won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, it’s the emotional impact of them that makes this Godzilla hit harder than any contemporary. Even on the small screen, you’ll be in awe.* — K.P.
How to watch: Godzilla Minus One is streaming on Netflix.
* denotes the entry comes from a previous Mashable list.
UPDATE: Oct. 31, 2025, 1:00 p.m. EDT This list was first published on May 24, 2020. It has since been updated to reflect the current selection on Netflix.
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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.”
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")
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