We’re in an age where you can realistically delegate tasks to smart hunks of metal, whether it’s a self-driving car or a robot that can clean on your behalf. Most of us probably won’t be able to afford the helpful sentient humanoids being developed in our lifetimes, but robot vacuums are an affordable way to experience that promised utopia right now.
Today’s floor cleaners are also more advanced than ever. In addition to vacuuming, many of the best models can now mop, allowing you to tackle both carpet and hardwood flooring. Some can automatically dispense of their trash and dirty water, too, and clean their own components without intervention. We now even have models that can pick up dirty laundry and purify the air in your home, preventing you from having to lift a finger.
But if you need something relatively affordable for daily cleaning, you’d be surprised how little you have to pay for premium features. Below, we’ve listed the best deals currently available on a slate of Verge-approved robot vacuums, whether you prefer a budget entry-level model from Yeedi or a top-of-the-line offering from iRobot, Dreame, and more.
Roborock’s S8 MaxV Ultra — our pick for the best robot vacuum overall — is available from Best Buy, Roborock, and Amazon for $1,299.99 ($500 off), which is $200 shy of its best price to date. The combination of a 10,000Pa suction power and dual rubber roller brushes makes it a terrific vacuum, one that can easily pick up pet hair and other debris. It can also mop with great efficiency thanks to a sonic mopping system that vibrates the mop pad 4,000 times a minute, allowing it to clean sticky juices, thick condiments, and other common spills. The mop arm can extend to cover corners and baseboard edges, too.
The S8 MaxV Ultra’s camera-equipped AI obstacle avoidance makes it the best navigator in Roborock’s lineup and one of the top models overall, though it’s not quite as strong as Roomba’s. The mobile app offers ample options to customize cleaning zones and schedules, and you can use its dedicated voice assistant to start and stop routines. It’s also a Matter-ready robot that’s compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Home.
$1000
With top-notch vacuuming performance, an easy-to-use app, and built-in voice control, the S8 MaxV Ultra is a superb vacuum and good mop. It features Roborock’s best obstacle detection, innovative features like dirt detection, and a hands-free dock that makes it an expensive but excellent choice.
The Roborock Q8 Max Plus is a cheaper option you can buy for $399.99 ($419 off) at Amazon and Roborock, which is its best price to date. It isn’t as powerful or feature-packed as the S8 MaxV Ultra, but it still delivers a solid 5,500Pa of suction power, rendering it good enough for most cleaning tasks. It also handles mopping well, with 30 adjustable water flow levels and a sizable 350ml water tank that allows it to cover larger areas without frequent refills. Thanks to built-in Lidar navigation, the robovac also maps your home efficiently and avoids most obstacles, though it lacks a built-in camera for advanced object recognition.
$400
The Roborock Q8 Max Plus offers strong 5,500Pa suction, solid mopping features, and reliable obstacle avoidance.
The new Roborock Saros Z70 is on sale for $1,999 ($600 off) at Amazon and Roborock, which is its best price to date. What sets it apart is a built-in robotic arm that can pick up items such as socks, tissues, towels, and even small sandals. While the arm isn’t entirely reliable, the Z70 is still a highly capable robovac with 22,000Pa suction power. It features a dual anti-tangle system, along with dual spinning mop pads that lift to avoid carpets and can detach automatically. Roborock’s StarSight navigation system allows you to even teach the robovac to recognize specific objects, while the AdaptLift chassis lets it climb over thick carpets. Plus, the Matter-compatible vacuum also integrates with Roborock’s Multifunctional Dock 4.0, which handles auto-emptying, charging, and both refilling and draining its water tanks. Read our review.
$1999
The Roborock Saros Z70 offers built-in robotic arm that can pick up light items like socks. It’s also a powerful robovac / mop hybrid, with with 22,000Pa suction and dual spinning mop pads that lift and detach automatically.
The Dreame X40 Ultra is another mopping robot, and while it’s on the more expensive side, you can currently pick it up for $999.99 ($500 off) from Dreame and Amazon (if you’re a Prime member), which is $100 shy of its all-time low. You’re paying a premium for 12,000Pa of suction power and a pair of removable, self-retracting mop pads, which it can automatically clean and dry on its own using the included base. It can also empty its own bin and refill its own water tank.
The Dreame X40 Ultra features an extendable side brush and mop pads, too, offering better coverage for baseboards, corners, and the underside of your furniture. It uses a combination of AI-powered cameras and “3D-structured light” (presumably based on lidar technology) to map and navigate rooms, with customizable keep-out zones and more functions available in the app. There’s also a dirt detection system that can identify messier spills and adjust its cleaning routine accordingly.
$1000
With a unique ability to remove and reattach its mop pads, the Dreame X40 solves the problem of vacuuming carpets (with 12,000Pa suction power) while also mopping hard floors. Its mops can also swing out and under low furniture, getting where most bots can’t reach.
The Dreame L20 Ultra is currently available for $539.99 ($440 off) from Amazon, which remains its best price to date. The L20 Ultra is an excellent alternative to Dreame’s newer flagship robots, including the X40. It lacks a bit of power in comparison, though its 7,000Pa of suction power is still enough for most cleaning jobs. It also doesn’t have the L40’s tri-cut brush, which makes the step-up model more efficient at picking up pet hair. The only other real advantage the X40 holds over the L20 is its self-extending arms for vacuuming (though the dual mop pads can extend a bit for baseboard and corner coverage), nor does it have dirt detection.
The L20 Ultra’s base station is rather large, but it can take care of the entire cleaning process, including emptying the dustbin, emptying and refilling the water tanks, and washing and drying the mop pads. It doesn’t have a heated cleaning function for the mop pads, however. It uses a lidar-based AI-powered navigation system, and you can prompt it to start cleaning by voice using Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands.
$540
The L20 Ultra is a great all-around bot that can remove its mop pads to vacuum carpet and do the splits with its mops to better clean your baseboards. It has 7,000Pa suction, a bigger base station, and fewer advanced cleaning features than the newer X30 and X40 Ultra models, but it’s still an excellent robot vacuum.
The SwitchBot S10 is available directly from SwitchBot for $600 ($600 off) when you use coupon code LMTK50, which is one of its best prices to date. The S10 is one of the most affordable robot vacuum / mop hybrids you can buy, one that can refill its own tank so long as you hook the battery-powered base station into your home’s plumbing. It can also dry its own mop pads and empty its own bin at a separate docking bay, and offers enough capacity to run for up to 90 days without intervention.
The S10’s self-cleaning roller mop is more effective than the typical pads we see in most other units, but it’s also limited to a smaller coverage area. It only has a single roller brush for vacuuming, but its respectable 6,500Pa suction can make up for it. And while it has lidar mapping and AI-powered obstacle avoidance, we found it still has a tendency to get stuck on laundry, bath mats, and other obstacles. The S10 is also one of the few robovacs with Matter support, however, which effectively enables native control through Apple Home, Google Home, and Alexa (though said platforms don’t yet fully support robot vacuums).
Read our SwitchBot S10 review.
$600
The S10 is a great mopping robot with a battery-powered water refill dock that makes it the most hands-free robovac we’ve tested. A separate auto-empty dock takes care of the dust. It’s big and loud and lacks some features found on high-end robots, but it does a great job of keeping your floors clean.
The SwitchBot K10 Plus is available for $240 ($260 off) from SwitchBot (with promo code LMTK40), which is an all-time low. At 3.6 inches high and 9.8 inches wide, it’s a more petite option if you want something that can maneuver tighter spaces, which it does to decent success with a lidar-based mapping system that supports digital keep-out zones. It only has 2,500Pa suction, but that should be powerful enough to lift dirt in all but the deepest carpeting. You can also attach disposable mopping pads, though their mopping function doesn’t work well. The K10 Plus comes with a self-emptying dock that can hold a respectable four liters of dirt before it needs emptying.
$240
The smallest robot vac on the block, the K10 Plus, doesn’t compare to the other bots here in terms of performance, but if you have a small space where other vacs can’t get to, it’s better than nothing. It’s also very quiet, making it ideal for small spaces like home offices and bedrooms or a very small studio apartment.
The Eufy X10 Pro Omni, our current pick for the best midrange robot vacuum / mop, is down to an all-time low of $549.99 ($250 off) at Eufy’s online storefront with promo code WS24T2351121. Amazon is also matching said deal price when you apply code EUFYX10PRO at checkout.
The X10 Pro Omni is a bit of a novelty, at least in comparison to other robovacs in its price range, in that it offers AI-powered obstacle detection, which allows it to deftly navigate cables and other clutter. It also features a slew of functions you’d expect from top-of-the-line models, including 8,000Pa of suction power, speedy lidar-powered mapping, and oscillating dual spinning brushes for mopping.
Mind you, none of these features are as effective as they are on more premium models, though the result is an all-in-one bot that punches above its weight. Plus, it has heated mop drying and onboard water reservoir, the latter of which prevents it from having to return to its multifunction auto-empty / wash / fill dock too frequently.
$550
The X10 is a great robovac with excellent AI-powered obstacle detection, powerful oscillating mops, a user-friendly app, and good mapping capabilities.
If you’re looking for a bump-and-roll model that’s relatively budget-friendly, the discontinued Eufy 11S Max is on sale at Amazon for just $139.99 ($140 off). The 11S Max stands out from other robovacs because it doesn’t use Wi-Fi, meaning it doesn’t require you to fiddle with a mobile app on your phone. Instead, you can control it using an on-board button or with the included remote, which also allows you to create cleaning schedules. It’s relatively quiet and reliable, too, with 2,000Pa of suction power and replaceable parts, making it a great long-term investment for those who want something basic.
$140
The Eufy 11S Max is a super slim, repairable bump-and-roll bot with a large 600ml bin and three cleaning levels. Its biggest selling point, however, is that it lacks Wi-Fi, meaning you don’t have to fiddle with an app.
The Yeedi Cube is currently down to an all-time low of $246.99 ($243 off) at Amazon at checkout. It’s not easy to find a self-emptying / self-cleaning vacuum at this price, as those features are typically only available on robots that cost upward of $600 or more.
With 5,100Pa of suction power, the Cube can tackle most common vacuuming scenarios, though its single hybrid rubber / bristle brush can get easily tangled with pet hair. It mops better than most models in its range, however, namely because its vibrating microfiber pads can actually scrub your floors. The Cube uses lasers for object avoidance, too, though it’s not as effective for navigation as those with lidar and AI smarts. It can avoid large furniture and other objects, but it might need your help rerouting around cables, toys, and laundry. Still, we found it navigates better than most other robots under $300.
$247
One of the first robots that can vacuum, mop, self-empty, self-wash, and self-dry with hot air for under $1,000, the Yeedi Cube is an older model that currently retails for under $500. It’s a good vacuum and mop for hands-free cleaning on a budget.
The Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 is a great robot vacuum / mop hybrid that’s now on sale for $399.99 ($320 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which is $20 shy of its all-time low price. Before the Eufy X10 Pro Omni took its place, the Matrix Plus 2-in-1 was our runner-up pick for those seeking a midrange robot vacuum that mops and automatically empties its own bin. Its vibrating, sonic mopping feature does an excellent job of scrubbing hardwood floors; however, keep in mind that you’ll have to fill and attach the mop reservoir manually.
$400
The Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop mops very well — doing a swingy, scrubbing movement with its rear end when in “Matrix mode.” However, you have to manually fill and attach the mop reservoir and empty the bin when it mops, as it only self-empties in vacuum mode and can only avoid larger objects.
You can get iRobot’s Roomba Combo 10 Max from Amazon, Best Buy, and iRobot for $799.99 ($600 off), which is its second-best price to date. We think it’s the best robot vacuum for pet hair, one that combines high suction power with rotating dual rubber brushes that pick up without getting tangled. What’s even more impressive is that it comes with a new multifunction charging dock that allows it to empty its bin, wash its own mop, and even refill its mopping tank. Add in Matter support, excellent AI-powered obstacle detection, and a retractable mop arm, and you’ve got a robovac that makes cleaning almost entirely hands-free.
$800
iRobot’s first mopping bot that can refill its water tank and wash and dry its mop, the Combo 10 Max, features a retractable mop arm and superior suction power. It’s also iRobot’s first robot to support Matter.
If you’re working with a tight budget, the Combo i5 is also a good vacuum / mop — one you can pick up on sale at Amazon right now for $199.99, down from $349.99. It’s not as powerful as the aforementioned Combo 10 Max and can’t refill its water tank or wash and dry its own mop; however, it still features Roomba’s wide, dual rubber brushes, which do an excellent job of picking up dirt and debris. It doesn’t support virtual keep-out zones or Matter, either, though you can schedule it to clean specific rooms at set times. It’s also compatible with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and like all Roombas, it’s relatively easy to repair.
$200
The Roomba Combo i5 Plus is the company’s budget vacuum and mop robot with room mapping features but no virtual keep-out zones.
$1100
The Deebot X8 Pro Omni remains our favorite robot vacuum / mop. It represents a welcome return to form for Ecovacs’ flagship line, with great obstacle avoidance, a small dock, and a convenient self-cleaning brush system.
$230
A budget robot vacuum and mop with high-end features, including room-specific cleaning, carpet boost, and smart navigation, it also features an auto-empty dock for just $80 more.
$550
A superior mopping bot with a superior price tag, the Narwal is smart enough to know when it needs to go back and mop more. Its vacuuming is good, and its unique onboard compression bin means no loud auto-emptying.
Update, June 10th: Updated to reflect current pricing / availability and a deal for Roborock’s Q8 Max Plus.
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#cheap #robot #vacuum #deals #June
![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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