London for artificial intelligence (AI)

A woman using a virtual reality headset and making gestures with  her hands.
London is the city where Charles Babbage designed his “engines” – the very first computers. The first live demonstrations of the wireless telegraph and television also took place in the UK capital. Today, London is at the forefront of technology with exceptional data diversity and is the AI growth capital.

Here are five reasons why London excels in artificial intelligence:

1. A growing ecosystem

London is home to leading global AI firms such as DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic and Inflection AI. According to the UK Government, UK AI companies generated a total revenue of £10.6bn in 2022. [1]

In 2023, the UK hosted the first international AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes. The event welcomed the international community’s efforts to cooperate on AI to promote inclusive economic growth, sustainable development and innovation, and to foster public trust and confidence in AI systems to fully realise their potential. [2]

2. Investment opportunities

London continues to be a major player in the global venture capital landscape, with corporate and VC investment continuing to pour into the city's AI capabilities.

More than $8bn in venture capital (VC) investments were made into London-based AI companies between 2021 and 2024, more than Paris and Berlin combined. [3]

In 2024, London-based startup Wayve raised more than $1bn to develop and launch the Embodied AI products designed to improve driving automation levels from assisted driving to fully automated driving. [4]

Google is set to open its new £1bn headquarters in King’s Cross, while GSK (formerly GlaxoSmithKline) opened a £10m research hub in 2020 to leverage AI for the discovery of new drugs to treat cancer and other diseases. [5]

Microsoft AI has announced the opening of a new AI hub in the heart of London. The centre will drive pioneering work to advance state-of-the-art language models and their supporting infrastructure, create world-class tooling for foundation models and collaborate closely with AI team partners across Microsoft, including OpenAI. [6]

3. Trusted data

London offers open and transparent data with tight rules for privacy. The London Datastore, a free data-sharing portal from the Mayor of London, provides everyone with access to more than 700 datasets on London, with more data becoming accessible all the time. [7] Great news for companies like Citymapper, which started in London and now covers 90% of all public transport across the UK. 

4. A global environment

More than 300 languages are spoken in London and AI thrives in this multilingual environment. Deep learning comes from data that is truly representative of diverse populations, so the breadth and depth of London’s datasets are as unique as its entrepreneurs. [8]

5. Leading research

London’s advanced AI base pumps out high-quality academic research and talent, with 13 top universities in the city offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees related to AI and machine learning. [9]

Universities such as Imperial and University College London (UCL) employ the largest number of machine learning professionals in the UK, with UCL hosting its own research centre for AI in the city.

Some of the best universities ranked based on their research performance in artificial intelligence include:

  • Imperial.
  • University College London.
  • King’s College London.
  • Queen Mary University of London.
  • London School of Economics and Political Science.
  • University of London.

See London's AI facts:

A purple and pink infographic with stats and facts about London's artificial intelligence industry. 

Many people told us that a new AI lab would need to be based in Silicon Valley to be successful, but we saw things in a different way. In London, we have top talent right here on our doorstep and it’s also a hub for exceptional AI talent from all around the globe.
DeepMind

Explore companies that have benefited from London's tech ecosystem.

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