--- title: This former notorious red-light district is now one of... description: King's Cross in London has transformed from one of the city's most notorious neighborhoods into a global AI hub, rivaled only by San Francisco and Beijing. The... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/this-former-notorious-red-light-district-is-now-one-of-the-world-s-top-ai-hubs-zu56n1nqu twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: This former notorious red-light district is now one of the world’s top AI hubs | daily.dev og:description: King's Cross in London has transformed from one of the city's most notorious neighborhoods into a global AI hub, rivaled only by San Francisco and Beijing. The... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/this-former-notorious-red-light-district-is-now-one-of-the-world-s-top-ai-hubs-zu56n1nqu og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/zU56N1Nqu.png og:image:alt: This former notorious red-light district is now one of the world’s top AI hubs og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # This former notorious red-light district is now one of the world’s top AI hubs **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary King's Cross in London has transformed from one of the city's most notorious neighborhoods into a global AI hub, rivaled only by San Francisco and Beijing. The shift began in 2016 when DeepMind moved in post-Google acquisition, triggering a wave of AI startups seeking proximity to talent and peers. Today the area hosts OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, Synthesia, Wayve, and dozens more. London now has around 3,600 AI startups that have collectively raised $12.1 billion of the city's $14.8 billion in total funding. Prime rents in King's Cross have risen 18% over three years, office vacancy sits at just 0.9%, and AI startups have leased over 1 million square feet across London since June. A growing theme is European AI sovereignty, sparked by Anthropic's shutdown of Mythos and Fable access, prompting local investors and founders to argue Europe must build and own its own AI infrastructure rather than rely on U.S. lab outposts. Talent competition is fierce, with Anthropic listing ML research engineer salaries of £260,000–£630,000 against a London market average of £102,000. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much office space have AI startups leased in London recently and what has happened to rents in King's Cross? Since the start of June, AI-related startups have leased more than 1 million square feet of office space in London. Prime rents in King's Cross have risen 18% over the past three years, driven by large leases of at least 10,000 square feet. The office vacancy rate for conventional space in the area has fallen to just 0.9%, with demand clearly outstripping supply. _Teams scouting London office markets or tracking UK AI real estate trends follow developments like these on daily.dev._ ### What salary range did Anthropic list for a machine learning research engineer in London? Anthropic listed a salary range of £260,000 to £630,000 for a machine learning research engineer in London, compared to the London market average of around £102,000 for the same role. The gap is forcing UK AI startups to raise larger funding rounds to remain competitive in the talent market. _UK AI founders navigating the talent war keep up with compensation benchmarks and funding trends on daily.dev._ ### How many AI startups are in London and how much have they raised? London has around 3,600 AI startups, which together have raised approximately $12.1 billion out of the $14.8 billion raised across the city since late July, according to Dealroom. The concentration of funding in AI reflects the rapid growth of the King's Cross cluster and broader London ecosystem. _Founders and investors tracking the UK AI funding landscape find the latest data points on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [US AI giants are flocking to London. 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