Black Friday falls on Nov. 28 this year, but that doesn’t mean you need to wait until after pumpkin pie to shop. Amazon’s official Black Friday sale has been underway since Nov. 20, and we’re seeing a bunch of epic deals. Some of our favorite products from Bose, Apple, Anker, and Lego are on sale, in addition to Amazon devices like Kindles and the Echo lineup, plus discounts on some of our favorite gifts for 2025.
A majority of Amazon Black Friday deals are record-low prices that match or beat the deals we saw during October Prime Day. See the evidence for yourself by plugging the URL into camelcamelcamel, the Mashable shopping team’s secret weapon to finding the lowest prices at Amazon.
SEE ALSO:
20+ of the best Black Friday streaming deals live: HBO Max, Apple TV+, Spotify, and more
With speedy Prime shipping, shopping Amazon’s sale early could get some of your items to your doorstep before Thanksgiving even starts.
Recommended deals for you
Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds
—
$219.99
(List Price $249.00)
Apple iPad 11″ 128GB Wi-Fi Retina Tablet (Blue, 2025 Release)
—
$274.00
(List Price $349.00)
Amazon Fire HD 10 32GB Tablet (2023 Release, Black)
—
$69.99
(List Price $139.99)
Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones
—
$248.00
(List Price $399.99)
Blink Outdoor 4 1080p Security Camera (5-Pack)
—
$159.99
(List Price $399.99)
Fire TV Stick 4K Streaming Device With Remote (2023 Model)
—
$24.99
(List Price $49.99)
Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones
—
$298.00
(List Price $429.00)
Shark AV2511AE AI Robot Vacuum With XL Self-Empty Base
—
$249.99
(List Price $599.00)
Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band)
—
$339.00
(List Price $399.00)
WD 6TB My Passport USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
—
$134.99
(List Price $179.99)
We’ll be updating this page with new Amazon Black Friday deals as they drop, so keep checking back through the end of Cyber Weekend. Of course, it’s worth checking out the best deals from competing retailers like Target, Best Buy, and Walmart to make sure you’re getting the best deal (we curate our lists to only include deals that are the actual best ones across retailers). If you don’t feel like scrolling through all of that, you can keep up with the utmost best deals across the internet with our live deals tracker or get them texted straight to your phone.
Best Apple deal
$479
at Amazon
$599
Save $120
Why we like it
If you need a desktop upgrade, this is hands-down the best value you can get right now. The new Mac mini packs the M4 chip into a tiny 5-inch box, and Apple finally upped the starting RAM to 16GB (instead of the stingy 8GB of the past). That means it can actually handle heavy multitasking right out of the box.
Honorable mention: Apple deals are going hard this Black Friday. The AirPods 4 with ANC just hit a record-low price of $99.99, but they’re flying off the shelves. We’ve seen them sell out once at Amazon already, so if they’re sold out for you, you can also grab them for $99.99 at Target. These give the entry-level AirPods (currently on sale for $69.99) the nice addition of ANC, which performed so well that it earned these buds a coveted Mashable Choice Award.
Read Mashable’s full review of the Apple AirPods 4 with ANC.
More Black Friday Apple deals at Amazon
-
Apple AirTag — $17.97
$29(save $11.03) -
Apple AirTag (4-pack) — $64.98
$99(save $34.02) -
Apple Pencil (USB-C) — $69
$79(save $10) -
Apple Pencil Pro — $99
$129(save $30) -
Apple iPad, 11-inch (A16, WiFi, 128GB) — $279
$349(save $70) -
Apple iPad mini (A17 Pro, WiFi, 128GB) — $399
$499(save $100) -
Apple iPad, 11-inch (A16, WiFi + cellular, 128GB) — $429
$499(save $70) -
Apple AirPods 4 — $69
$129(save $60) -
Apple AirPods Pro 3 — $219.99
$249(save $19.01) -
Apple AirPods Max (USB-C) — $399.99
$549(save $149.01) -
Apple iPad Air, 11-inch (M3, WiFi, 128GB) — $449
$599(save $150) -
Apple Mac mini (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $479
$599(save $120) -
Apple iPad Air, 13-inch (M3, WiFi, 128GB) — $649
$799(save $50) -
Apple iPad Pro (M5, 11 inch) — $899
$999(save $100) -
Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $949
$1,199(save $250) -
Apple MacBook Air, 15-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $949
$1,199(save $250) -
Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,444
$1,599(save $250) -
Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,149
$1,399(save $200)
Best Lego deal
$50.99
at Amazon
$79.99
Save $29.00
Why we like it
As the year comes to a close, another heartbreaking handful of Legos are set to retire. The Mos Espa Podrace dioarama from The Phantom Menace is one of them, so now is your last chance not only to find it in stock at all, but for nearly $20 off its usual price. This set is a best-seller for a reason: You get the full canyon in Tattooine scene, models of both Anakin’s Podracer and Subulba’s Podracer, and a special 25th anniversary plaque with a quote from Qui-Gon Jinn. It’s nostalgia in brick form that any Star Wars fan should have in their collection.
More early Black Friday Lego deals
Best Kindle deal
$124
at Amazon
$159
Save $35
Why we like it
Down at a record-low price, the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is Mashable’s favorite Kindle. It can get up to 12 weeks of battery life before you’ll need to recharge, and the 16GB storage gives plenty of room for downloaded books. Gift it to the reader in your life or snag one for yourself to stay entertained during holiday travel. It’s also fully waterproof, so you can take it along to the pool or on your tropical winter vacation.
More Kindle deals
Best Amazon device deal
$21.99
at Amazon
$39.99
Save $18.00
Why we like it
Read Mashable’s full review of the Echo Pop.
It’s a known fact of the universe that Amazon devices get serious discounts on Black Friday (and Prime Day, for that matter). If you haven’t picked up a smart speaker yet, or just need one for a random room like the laundry room or guest bath, we recommend the Echo Pop. It’s currently $21.99, which is 45% off its regular price. Unlike the spherical Echo Dot, the Pop has a flat front that makes it fit way better on shallow shelves or crowded nightstands. It’s the perfect low-stakes way to add Alexa to another corner of your house without spending “real” money.
More early Black Friday Amazon device deals
Best portable power station deal
$349
at Amazon
$799
Save $450
Why we like it
Read Mashable’s full review of the Anker Solix C1000 Gen 2.
The new Anker Solix C1000 Gen 2 is one of my favorite portable power stations to hit the market this year. Anker’s new Gen 2 models focus on portability, and the C1000 Gen 2 is shockingly easy to carry around at 25 pounds. It’s a great model for taking to the campground or keeping in the garage in case of power outages. Thanks to Amazon’s Black Friday sale, this model is down to a new record low.
More Black Friday portable power station deals
Best headphones deal
Why we like it
Read Mashable’s full review of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones (2nd Gen).
If you’re looking for the most comfortable noise-cancelling headphones on the market, you want the Bose QuietComfort Ultra. As long as you’re cool with black or white, they’re on sale for $298. Since we spend plenty of the day listening to music, podcasts, or streaming YouTube, there’s good reason to invest in a super comfortable pair. Of course, they’ll make for a special gift this holiday season, or consider it a gift of self-care to get yourself through holiday travel.
More Black Friday headphones deals
Best smartwatch deal
$199.99
at Amazon
$249
Save $49.01
Why we like it
The Apple Watch SE 3 earns the top spot on Mashable’s list of the best smartwatches. The SE 3 is the first SE model to come with an always-on display. Mashable Tech Editor Timothy Beck Werth wrote, “In addition to its gorgeous OLED display, it has the same S10 chip inside the Ultra 3, the same water resistance as the Series 11, and all the necessary features you’re looking for in a smartwatch.” All of that now comes in at under $200 thanks to this Black Friday sale at Amazon.
More early Black Friday smartwatch deals
Black Friday TV deals at Amazon
$399.99
at Amazon
$649.99
Save $250
Why we like it
When you think of TVs on sale at Amazon, you probably think of Amazon’s own Fire TVs. You’re half right: The best Fire TV deal at Amazon is a Fire TV, but it’s actually Insignia (a Best Buy brand). At just $399.99 after a 38% discount, this 75-inch Insignia QLED is the cheapest 75-inch QLED TV we’ve seen across all Black Friday TV deals so far — that’s almost $200 cheaper than the non-QLED 75-inch version of Amazon’s Omni TV. And why would you settle when you could bring home the boosted quantum dot brightness for watching in the daytime?
Mashable Deals
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More Black Friday TV deals
43-inch TVs
50- to 55-inch TVs
65-inch TVs
75-inch TVs and up
85-inch TVs and up
Black Friday robot vacuum deals at Amazon
$999.99
at Amazon
$1,599.99
Save $600
Why we like it
This Black Friday season marks the very first time the Roborock Saros 10R has dropped below $1,000, so senior shopping reporter Leah Stodart can’t help but recommend it to people — considering the Saros 10R was her favorite robot vacuum that she’s ever tested for most of 2025, and is still the best robot vacuum mop combo when it comes to corner and edge mopping. (In Reddit threads about which robot vacuum everyone is looking to buy this Black Friday, the Saros 10R is mentioned multiple times.)
At 22,000 Pa of suction power, the Saros 10R is also one of the most powerful robot vacs you’ll find on sale this season. Plus, the livestream pet camera will quickly become a daily staple in the routines of busy pet parents.
More Black Friday robot vacuum deals
Robot vacuum and mop combos
Robot vacuums that don’t mop
Black Friday kitchen deals
$269.99
at Amazon
$369.99
Save $100
Why we like it
The Ninja Slushi is a blast in any season — frozen margs in any flavor you want when it’s hot, apple cider slush or gingerbread frappé when it’s chilly. (Mashable Senior Shopping Reporter Leah Stodart loves her Slushi, and so do all of her friends.) A year after the first Slushi came out, Ninja released two larger capacity versions in a few fun colors. The 88-ounce model on sale for $269.99 at Amazon can make a slightly bigger batch than the original 72-ounce model, which is on sale for $249.99 at Walmart. $20 more for extra beverages and a chic green build? Sold. (If you want the purple one, it’s $269.99 at Target.)
More Black Friday kitchen deals
Best outdoor deal
$9.49
at Amazon
$19.95
Save $10.46
Why we like it
If there’s one thing Mashable readers love buying on Black Friday, it’s the LifeStraw. It’s a staple of every major sales event, and for good reason. Right now, it’s back down to its Prime Day price of $9.99, which is typically the lowest it goes all year (it’s usually around $20). Even if you aren’t an avid hiker, this is a must-have for your home emergency kit or bug-out bag. It filters out 99.999999 percent of waterborne bacteria and parasites, so you can drink directly from a stream (or a sketchy tap) safely. At $10, it’s the ultimate practical stocking stuffer.
More early Black Friday outdoor deals
Drones and action cameras
Other outdoor gear
Beauty tech deals
Source link
#Amazon #Black #Friday #sale #officially #live #handpicked #deals
![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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