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Black Friday may technically be over, but the best streaming deals are still going strong. Over the holiday weekend, we’ll be hard at work bringing you the top Black Friday deals that are still live. And as we approach Cyber Monday, we’ll let you know if any new offers appear.
It’s been a tough year to be a streaming binge-watcher. Almost every major streamer got more expensive in 2025, including Netflix, Peacock, HBO Max, Apple TV+, YouTube TV, Disney+, Hulu, and Paramount+. So, needless to say, we were extra excited about this year’s selection of Black Friday streaming deals. We could all use some discounts, right? The good news is that even with Black Friday itself done and dusted, the deals are still available as we head into Cyber Monday.
The Black Friday sale event is well known as the best time to sign up for streaming services, thanks to serious savings on monthly or annual subscription fees. This year has been no different. If you’re looking for a way to cut back on streaming costs for 2026, there’s still time to take advantage of majorly discounted subscriptions.
SEE ALSO:
Expert-picked early Cyber Monday deals: We found record prices on AirPods, Kindles, Lego, and PS5 consoles
Apple TV+, HBO Max, Disney+, and Hulu have all thrown their hats in the ring with Cyber Monday deals, as have plenty of other streamers via Prime Video add-ons. So you can weigh all of your streaming options for the season. Plus, you still have time to sign up. Most of these offers will be live through Dec. 1.
There are two glaring omissions from this year’s Black Friday streaming offers: Netflix and Peacock. Netflix never offers deals, so this comes as no surprise. Peacock, on the other hand, typically offers one of the best Black Friday streaming deals. It’s extra disappointing, as the streamer had one of the biggest price hikes in 2025. We included a way you can still get a deal on Peacock below, despite its lack of Cyber Week participation.
One thing to note: Most Cyber Monday streaming deals are limited to new and returning subscribers (as in you haven’t been a subscriber in at least a month or so). If you qualify, you can lock in some serious savings on streaming apps.
Best Cyber Monday streaming deal overall
$2.99/month for 12 months (save $8/month)
Why we like it
In a shocking turn of events, the HBO Max Black Friday deal in 2025 actually beats its streaming deal from 2024 and 2023. This year, new and returning subscribers can sign up for 12 months of HBO Max Basic with ads for $2.99 per month through Dec. 1. That’s just $35.88 for the whole year and about 73% in savings. In 2023 and 2024, the streamer only offered this discounted price for six months. So, not only are you getting double the subscription length for a discount, but you’re also saving even more after its recent price hike (up to $10.99/month from $9.99/month).
The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streaming service is one of our favorites. Not only is it home to Warner Bros. films, but also new A24 theatrical releases, a ton of excellent original series (like The Last of Us, The Pitt, and IT: Welcome to Derry), and even live sports via the B/R Sports add-on.
Psst: If you don’t want to deal with logging into another streaming service, this deal is also available in the form of a Prime Video or Hulu add-on.
Best Cyber Monday streaming bundle deal
$4.99/month for 12 months (save $8/month)
Why we like it
While we’re pretty disappointed that Hulu didn’t resurrect its 99 cents deal for 2025, this bundle deal almost makes up for it. Through Dec. 1, new and returning subscribers can score both Disney+ and Hulu with ads for just $4.99 per month for 12 months. Usually $12.99 per month for both, that’s $8 per month in savings or $96 total.
We saw the same bundle drop to only $2.99 during Black Friday 2024, but both streamers raised their prices this year, so the Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal has been appropriately adjusted for inflation. And considering each streamer is $11.99 per month on its own, this is an excellent deal. It’s also a good way to lock in a solid price for the year since Disney and Hulu will eventually be merged into a single app — with a higher price tag, no doubt. And hey, maybe we’ll still be surprised with the 99-cent Hulu deal for Cyber Monday.
Best Apple TV+ Cyber Monday deal
$5.99/month for 6 months (save $42)
Why we like it
Apple TV+, just like several other streamers, raised its subscription cost by 30 percent a few months back, from $9.99 to $12.99 per month. So this deal, which knocks the price down to only $5.99 per month for half a year, is much appreciated. You can take advantage of this deal directly at Apple TV+ or in the form of a Prime Video add-on, meaning you need to be a Prime member or Prime Video subscriber.
Apple TV+ features a virtually all-original lineup filled with Emmy-winners like The Studio, Ted Lasso, Severance, and The Morning Show, and Oscar-winners and nominees like CODA and Killers of the Flower Moon. TL;DR: You’ll get more than your money’s worth with this Black Friday deal. Just don’t drag your feet — it’s only around until Cyber Monday on Dec. 1.
Best Cyber Monday live TV streaming deal
Why we like it
Sling’s Day Pass is a solid way to tune into live sports, events, and shows without having to splurge on a full subscription. Sometimes you just want to watch a single game and be on your way. It’s usually $4.99 for a day, but for Black Friday, Sling is offering its Orange Day Pass for only $1 through Dec. 1 at 3 a.m. ET. The Orange package includes ESPN and all its affiliates, TNT, TBS, AMC, IFC, and more. That means you’ll be able to tune into live college football rivalry games on ESPN this weekend — like Georgia Tech vs. Georgia on Friday and Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee and Alabama vs. Auburn on Saturday — for just a buck.
Best Cyber Monday music streaming deal
Free for 4 months (save $11.99/month)
Why we like it
It’s not uncommon to see Amazon offering its music streaming service, Amazon Music Unlimited, for free during shopping events (this year, you can get three free months). It is, however, quite rare for Spotify to offer its Premium service for free. Through Dec. 31, new subscribers can score four free months of Spotify Premium, no questions asked. Typically $11.99 per month, that saves you nearly $50 total.
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With a Premium account, you can enjoy ad-free listening, collaborate with friends in real time, download music for offline listening, get full control over your music and playlists, unlock 15 hours per month of audiobook time, and finally enjoy lossless audio. You’ll also gain access to the famous Wrapped stats and new weekly listening stats.
Best free streaming deal for Cyber Monday
$49
at Walmart
$98
Save $49
Why we like it
If you already have a Walmart+ membership, or if you were considering signing up to take advantage of the Walmart Black Friday 2025 sale, then you’ll unlock free access to either Peacock or Paramount+ for one year. Even better, Walmart+ memberships are currently 50% off for Black Friday, so you’ll pay just $49 for 12 months of access. On top of these streaming deals, you’ll also get perks like free grocery and pharmacy delivery. If you’re not interested in a Walmart+ membership, we’re still holding out for the standalone Peacock Black Friday deal, but you can already get the Paramount+ Black Friday deal on its own.
Best Cyber Monday streaming deal with no ads
$11.99/year for your first year (save $58)
Why we like it
While most of the best streaming deals are on ad-supported tiers, the Starz $12/year deal is completely ad-free. Usually $69.99 per year, this Cyber Monday deal drops the price down to just $11.99 per year for your first year. That’s $58 in savings. There’s no end date listed for the deal, but we’d suggest signing up ASAP to lock down the savings. Starz is one of the only streamers that regularly offers deals, but this is by far the best we’ve seen. It may not be the most popular streaming service, but it’s packed with plenty of great content, including originals like the historical drama Outlander and the female serial killer tale Sweetpea, and movies like From the World of John Wick: Ballerina and The Long Walk (coming soon).
Best streaming stick deal
Why we like it
There are a lot of Amazon Fire TV Sticks on sale this Black Friday, but the better savings are on the Roku Streaming Stick Plus. Roku beats Amazon’s competing model by $0.99, but it’s also just a better device. When we put the Amazon Fire TV Stick head-to-head with the Roku, the Roku was the clear winner for its easy navigation, brilliant picture quality, and buffer-free streaming. Grab a Roku Streaming Stick Plus for just $19, saving you 52% off this Black Friday.
More Cyber Monday streaming deals
Black Friday Prime Video add-on offers
Black Friday Hulu and Roku add-on offers
Still looking for more deals? See the biggest discounts from Amazon’s epic Black Friday sale. You can also follow the Mashable live blog for the latest Black Friday news, price changes, and stock alerts.
Live
Latest Updates
13 hours ago | November 30, 2025
What do people actually buy on Black Friday? Here are the most-bought items by Mashable readers in 2025
Read more on our readers’ favorite picks here.
13 hours ago | November 30, 2025
It’s not uncommon to see Amazon offering its music streaming service, Amazon Music Unlimited, for free during shopping events (this year, you can get three free months). It is, however, quite rare for Spotify to offer its Premium service for free. Through Dec. 31, new subscribers can score four free months of Spotify Premium, no questions asked. Typically $11.99 per month, that saves you nearly $50 total.
With a Premium account, you can enjoy ad-free listening, collaborate with friends in real time, download music for offline listening, get full control over your music and playlists, unlock 15 hours per month of audiobook time, and finally enjoy lossless audio. You’ll also gain access to the famous Wrapped stats and new weekly listening stats.
13 hours ago | November 30, 2025
While most of the best streaming deals are on ad-supported tiers, the Starz $12/year deal is completely ad-free. Usually $69.99 per year, this Black Friday deal drops the price down to just $11.99 per year for your first year. That’s $58 in savings. There’s no end date listed for the deal, but we’d suggest signing up ASAP to lock down the savings. Starz is one of the only streamers that regularly offers deals, but this is by far the best we’ve seen. It may not be the most popular streaming service, but it’s packed with plenty of great content, including originals like the historical drama Outlander and the female serial killer tale Sweetpea, and movies like From the World of John Wick: Ballerina and The Long Walk (coming soon).
14 hours ago | November 30, 2025
Sling’s Day Pass is a solid way to tune into live sports, events, and shows without having to splurge on a full subscription. Sometimes you just want to watch a single game and be on your way. It’s usually $4.99 for a day, but for Black Friday, Sling is offering its Orange Day Pass for only $1 through Dec. 1 at 3 a.m. ET. The Orange package includes ESPN and all its affiliates, TNT, TBS, AMC, IFC, and more. That means you’ll be able to tune into live college football rivalry games on ESPN this weekend for just a buck.
16 hours ago | November 30, 2025
Black Friday is dead. Long live Cyber Monday.
We’re fully focused on finding you the best deals left over from Black Friday and early opportunities to snag the best discounts ahead of Cyber Monday. Check out our enormous breakdown of everything on offer in Cyber Monday 2025.
5:22 pm ET | November 29, 2025
If you’re looking for a Netflix Black Friday deal, don’t hold your breath. Netflix never offers deals, so we’re not surprised to see the streamer missing from this list — especially given the buzz around the new season of Stranger Things. Netflix plans now start at $7.99 per month with ads.
1:17 pm ET | November 29, 2025
Whether you want to stress less, sleep better, or have a more mindful 2026, meditation streaming apps can help. We’ve added new offers from meditation apps like Calm and Headspace to this guide.
12:41 pm ET | November 29, 2025
While most of the best streaming deals are for ad-supported tiers, there are a few noteworthy ad-free options. Here are our top picks for ad-free Black Friday streaming deals:
8:48 am ET | November 29, 2025
There are a lot of Amazon Fire TV Sticks on sale this Black Friday but the better savings are on the Roku Streaming Stick Plus. Roku beats Amazon’s competing model by $0.99, but it’s also just a better device. When we put the Amazon Fire TV Stick head-to-head with the Roku, the Roku was the clear winner for its easy navigation, brilliant picture quality, and buffer-free streaming. Grab a Roku Streaming Stick Plus for just $19, saving you 52% off this Black Friday.
7:57 am ET | November 29, 2025
Apple TV+, just like several other streamers, raised its subscription cost by 30 percent a few months back, from $9.99 to $12.99 per month. So this deal, which knocks the price down to only $5.99 per month for half a year, is much appreciated. You can take advantage of this deal directly at Apple TV+ or in the form of a Prime Video add-on, meaning you need to be a Prime member or Prime Video subscriber.
Apple TV+ features a virtually all-original lineup filled with Emmy-winners like The Studio, Ted Lasso, Severance, and The Morning Show, and Oscar-winners and nominees like CODA and Killers of the Flower Moon. TL;DR: You’ll get more than your money’s worth with this Black Friday deal.
7:13 am ET | November 29, 2025
Through Dec. 1, new subscribers can get the Disney+ and Hulu bundle (with ads) for only $4.99 per month for 12 months. Usually $12.99 per month, this Black Friday offer saves you $96 total for the year. If you prefer an ad-free experience, you can score a subscription for $14.99 per month for 12 months, saving you $60 for the year.
5:05 am ET | November 29, 2025
Need something to watch all these shows on? We’ve got you covered.
Samsung may sell the most TVs in the world, but LG’s C Series OLED TVs are certainly the most award-winning TVs in the world. Ever since the C1 OLED debuted in 2021, these OLED TVs have been collecting “Best TV of the year” awards. While the LG G5 Series OLED is now considered the flagship, its high sticker price puts it out of reach for most shoppers.
Our competitors have been writing about a “Black Friday deal” on the C5 for days, but we’ve been holding out. While Best Buy claims you can save $1,300 on this TV by paying $1,399.99, that price has been available at Amazon since October. So, we’ve been holding out in the hopes that this TV would finally get a new price drop on Black Friday, and our patience has been rewarded.
Read more here. Head directly to the deal here.
4:59 am ET | November 29, 2025
3:39 am ET | November 29, 2025
Through Dec. 1, aka Cyber Monday, you can add Fox One to Prime Video for only $9.99 per month for two months. That’s 50% off its usual cost of $19.99 per month for Black Friday.
4:22 pm ET | November 28, 2025
The $5 day pass that Sling TV has offered since August is already a great deal if you don’t have a streaming subscription with live TV. But Sling’s Black Friday deal drops the day price to just $1: From Friday, Nov. 28 through Sunday, Nov. 30, you can pay $1 to access 24 hours of 30+ Sling Orange channels. Catch college football on multiple ESPNs or cozy holiday movies on Freeform, TBS, and TNT.
24 hours of ESPN, Freeform, more for $1
1:25 pm ET | November 28, 2025
Usually, all the big streamers launch a Black Friday promotion, and we’ve seen Disney, Hulu, HBO, and Apple TV do exactly that. But what about Peacock? Alas, we may not get a Peacock deal this year.
Your best bet? Walmart+ memberships are currently 50% off (pay just $49 for the first year), and you can get Peacock for free along with your membership. Alternatively, sign up for the 30-day free trial and pick Peacock as your streaming perk.
11:52 am ET | November 28, 2025
Did you cut the cord? Add Fox One to Prime Video for 50% off and watch NFL Sundays live (plus a ton more content). You can add this streaming service to Prime Video for $9.99 a month.
8:16 am ET | November 28, 2025
Looking for something great to watch at home? Streaming subscribers are spoiled for choice between Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV, Prime Video, Shudder, Paramount+, Peacock, and more. And that’s before you even look at the vast libraries of movies and television programs within each streamer!
Don’t be overwhelmed or waste an hour scrolling through your services to determine what to watch. We’ve got your back, whatever your mood. Mashable offers watch guides for all of the above, broken down by genre: comedy, thriller, horror, documentary, and animation, among others. But if you’re seeking something brand new (or just new to streaming), we’ve got you covered there, too.
Mashable’s entertainment team has scoured the streaming services to highlight the most buzzed-about releases of the week and ranked them from worst to best — or least worth your time to most watchable. Whether you’re looking for heart-warming holiday fun, stranger-than-fiction stories, teen drama, bloody horror, or the return of Stranger Things, check out this guide.
7:47 am ET | November 28, 2025
7:39 am ET | November 28, 2025
For new subscribers, the NFL Sunday Ticket Black Friday deal is $12 per month for the next four months (through the end of the season), or $48 total for the rest of the season pass. Sunday Ticket usually costs $37.50 per month, so you’d be saving $25.50 each month.
7:13 am ET | November 28, 2025
A Walmart+ subscription is available for just $49 this Black Friday and comes with a year’s free subscription to Peacock Premium. That’s a 50% saving on the regular annual cost of a Walmart+ subscription.
6:40 am ET | November 28, 2025
4:51 am ET | November 28, 2025
Through Dec. 1, new subscribers can get the Disney+ and Hulu bundle (with ads) for only $4.99 per month for 12 months. Usually $12.99 per month, this Black Friday offer saves you $96 total for the year. If you prefer an ad-free experience, you can score a subscription for $14.99 per month for 12 months, saving you $60 for the year.
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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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