Jeff Bezos-backed Project Prometheus talks to lease offices in London

In short: London is seeing a wave of AI companies taking more office space, and Jeff Bezos’s Project Prometheus may be the latest to join them.

What's going on

Jeff Bezos’s AI lab, called Project Prometheus, is in talks to lease office space at King’s Cross in London, according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions involve three floors in the Jellicoe Building, totaling about 38,000 square feet. Prometheus and the building’s owner, King’s Cross Group, declined to comment.

Prometheus focuses on AI that can understand the physical world, meaning software that can work with real world things like machines, factories, and parts (like giving computers a better “sense” of how objects and spaces behave). The lab recently raised $10 billion from investors at a $38 billion valuation, the Financial Times reported.

Prometheus would join other AI companies that have recently expanded in London. Anthropic signed a lease for 158,000 square feet at One Triton Square. OpenAI has about 200 employees in London and took 88,500 square feet at Regent Quarter in King’s Cross, space that could fit up to 544 people.

New research from property adviser CBRE estimates AI-led companies could take up as much as 4 million square feet of office space in London by 2033, up from 1.5 million square feet today. CBRE and landlords say some smaller firms start in co-working spaces, then quickly move into larger, traditional offices as they hire more people.

What to watch

If more well-funded AI labs choose areas like King’s Cross, Paddington, Shoreditch, and London Bridge, rents and competition for space could rise. Watch for signed leases and new local hiring, since office moves often signal long-term plans to grow in the UK.

Source: Financial Times