While exact numbers are not yet available, CBRE believes artificial intelligence (AI) companies have taken up more than 1m sq ft of space in London between 2020 and 2025.

Network: Derwent London pre-let its 136,300 sq ft office development in the West End to data and AI firm Databricks

More notable than the volume, says Mike Gedye, the firm’s tech, media and telecoms sector lead, is the pace at which AI firms are looking to grow. “For speed, convenience and agility, they start in co-working because that’s the only place you can really get 15 to 20 seats quickly,” he explains. “But almost even before we’ve signed the lease or licence they’re saying we may be 50 to 100 by the end of next year.

“So suddenly they’re growing exponentially within flex and within a year they’re saying actually we probably need to be looking at more traditional spaces and then moving out from flex into traditional offices of 20,000 sq ft to 30,000 sq ft in 18 to 24 months. It’s incredibly fast.”

The use of flexible working space makes calculating the total size of its footprint hard as occupancy in the market is opaque.

In other cases, Gedye says, companies with only four employees are seeking 20,000 sq ft because they know they’re going to grow as they have secured venture capital backing.

AI-related companies have been making property headlines lately. This week, Derwent London pre-let its 136,300 sq ft Network office development in the West End to data and AI firm Databricks. The deal followed Great Portland Estates pre-letting 52,293 sq ft of workspace at The Delft near London Bridge to AI software firm Quantexa a few weeks earlier.

Within a year, AI firms are moving out from flex into traditional offices. It’s incredibly fast
Mike Gedye, CBRE

Last week, Landsec reported that its new flexible workspace at MYO King’s Cross had seen a flurry of lettings led by AI and tech-led businesses, with more than 10 companies from across the technology sector taking space in less than six months.

And tech giants are also in the mix, with OpenAI announcing its intention to make London its largest research hub outside the US, although without yet detailing the size of its intended team or workspace.

The growth follows a noticeable slowdown in the life sciences sector, which boomed just after the Covid-19 pandemic but has since experienced rockier times.

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In November, British Land chief executive Simon Carter said demand from AI companies had grown stronger than that of life sciences in the capital. Commentators say it is now picking up at an even faster pace than it was then.

Venture capital is driving the industry, says Tom Mellows, head of UK science, occupier representation, leasing and development at Savills, who likens the market now to that of life sciences before its slowdown. “I think general economic headwinds have played a part, but also investors are quite short term,” he adds. “Lots of investors have realised that something like cell and gene therapy is quite complex, and it takes a long time to turn an idea into a commercial product.

“AI you could argue is quicker, that its journey [to market] is quicker, in some instances, if it’s not related to something like a medical device or a new therapeutic treatment.”

AI companies include a vast array of businesses, Mellows adds, from payment platforms to those using machine learning for business efficiency. “It’s also quite often utilised as a tag because it helps raise money,” he says.

Some in scientific sectors such as robotics, agritech and climate tech require enhanced specifications and either dry or wet lab space – which could be repurposed from previous facilities intended for life sciences companies, according to Mellows. Many others will just be looking for standard offices.

Fast-growing companies

For landlords, the companies offer the excitement of having a tenant from a fast-growing sector in their building. However, these occupiers can come without a proven track record or a solid balance sheet, he adds.

Many scale-ups also want high levels of lease flexibility due to their often-changing circumstances, which is not always attractive. “Very often, these fast-growing companies just don’t have a track record; they may not even have a covenant strength – you’ve got to be comfortable with that,” Mellows explains.

Gedye says landlords that have a mixture of both flexible space and longer-term leases are well suited to cash in on such companies.

The Delft: Great Portland Estates pre-let its office to AI software firm Quantexa

British Land is a landlord that offers both. The firm’s head of campuses Mike Wiseman says the company’s strategy has always been around the broader science and technology area rather than just life sciences specifically.

The firm’s recently redeveloped One Triton Square was initially positioned as a life sciences facility, but as of last week the 300,000 sq ft building was 77% let or under offer with a broader mix of occupiers. Biotech firm Gilead Sciences has taken 50,000 sq ft, but

British Land has hinted that AI firms are also on board. Last summer, Synthesia, one of the UK’s biggest AI firms, moved into 20,000 sq ft headquarters at British Land’s nearby 20 Triton Street.

Wiseman says there has been “a decent chunk of deals” with “a lot more” space under offer. Although he says he cannot name the firms in question yet, there is a lot of “frontier tech demand coming through that building”.

And he feels London is perfectly placed for further growth in emerging technologies due to its skills base, educational institutions and the maturity of its tech company offerings. “There is a constant stream of people from the [US] West Coast particularly, saying to us that London is a super-attractive place to be, that the mature tech ecosystem is important because you have the talent here already,” he says.

London is the only place in the world where mature technology companies are based so close to cutting-edge research and development, Wiseman believes.

Speaking to Property Week as he prepares to visit the US to meet with tech firms, he says: “I’m going to see both these groups [researchers and established companies] when I go to the US, and I’ve got a five-and-a-half-hour flight between Boston and San Francisco; that’s a long way.

“I will also travel for longer between meetings within Boston than I do when I go up to see [semiconductor and software design company] Arm in Cambridge. I think we sometimes forget how well connected we are [in the UK].”

For this reason, Wiseman thinks the ‘golden triangle’ of London, Oxford and Cambridge should be viewed as one tech business centre rather than as separate areas.

According to Bidwells, there was 195,000 sq ft of space taken by AI companies in Cambridge at the end of December 2025. Of those providing applications, rather than hardware or infrastructure, half of their work related to the life sciences sector – something that highlights the complementary nature of the industries.

Bidwells research director Sue Foxley says: “There will be businesses better positioned than others, clearly, but the developments in the process of drug discovery and development, combined with the deep ecosystem in Cambridge, support the view that these activities will grow together rather than compete for space.”

But what about other areas of the UK? CBRE’s Gedye believes other cities with specialist industries and skills could also become global hubs. He gives the examples of Bristol’s cybersecurity, Manchester’s medicine and science and Birmingham’s automotive and food science businesses.

“They’re going to have to become famous for something rather than trying to compete with London on a smaller scale,” he says.

Given the dizzying speed at which AI-related businesses have grown, discussions of the industry cannot escape the topic of whether there is a bubble set to burst, especially in light of the slowdown in the life sciences field.

Mellows says: “It’s a bit like the dotcom bubble – you’re probably going to see ups and downs in investment because so much money’s got into the sector, but ultimately it’s here to stay: it’s going to be creating companies, creating demand in the long term and changing the way things are done.”