London has reclaimed its position as Europe’s leading tech spot, overtaking Paris after a sharp rise in AI investment and a renewed influx of global capital into its startup scene.
New figures from Dealroom show London ranked fourth globally in its latest Global Tech Ecosystem Index, behind only Silicon Valley, New York and Boston, after Startups in the capital raised $17.7bn (£13.2bn) last year.
AI investment in London almost doubled to $7bn, up from $3.9bn the year prior, thanks to names like Anthropic and OpenAI expanding their UK presence. The ranking marks a reversal from this time last year, when Paris briefly overtook the capital amid concerns Britain was losing ground in AI and fintech. Since then, London has been a beneficiary of a wave of investment into frontier AI and deep technologies.
Anthropic recently announced plans for a major new London Office near King’s Cross with capacity for 800 staff, while OpenAI is preparing a permanent UK base as competition for AI talent heats up.
Google Deepmind, Meta, Wayve, Synthesia and Isomorphic Labs are also clustered around the capital’s growing ‘knowledge quarter’ in King’s Cross – London’s answer to Silicon Valley.
Dealroom said the city’s recovery was driven by “stronger venture capital investment, continued unicorn creation and depth across sectors”. London is now home to 138 unicorns, including Wayve, Eleven-labs, and fintech giants Revolut and Monzo.
“London reclaiming the top spot in Europe reflects the maturity and resilience of the UK’s tech ecosystem”, said Dealroom founder Yoram Wijngaarde. “The city continues to attract significant companies across AI, fintech and life sciences.”
London has also increasingly become the European base for major US AI labs, with investors warning the arrival of firms like Anthropic or Open AI is starting to reshape salary expectations across startups.
Anthropic is currently advertising engineering roles in London paying up to £630,000 before stock options, while OpenAI has also expanded hiring across AI and infrastructure teams. This influx of US frontier AI firms could ultimately strengthen the UK tech sector by training the next generation of founders and attracting global talent into the UK.
Elsewhere, on a separate matter: There is limited demand among European investors to extend stock-trading hours, according to Bjorn Sibbern, the chief executive of SIX, even as US exchanges move to round-the-clock trading.
Sibbern said the Zurich-based exchange group was monitoring the US closely, but had yet to see a “strong business case” for longer trading hours on its markets in Switzerland, Spain and Britain.
“It is something we are looking at and, of course, has to be something we discuss with our customers,” he said. “We just need to see how strong the customer demand is. I’m not sure there is strong demand for trading some of our products at 11 o’clock in the evening.
Major US exchanges are planning this year to enable overnight trading on weekdays in response to global demand from retail investors and the growth of 24/7 crypto markets. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are set to adopt 22/5 (i.e. hours for a 5-day week) and 23/5 respectively for US equities.
While some have recently reviewed potential extensions, European exchanges have generally eschewed them. Many of Europe’s institutional trader have pushed for shorter hours in recent years, arguing it would concentrate liquidity and improve their work-life balance.
“Long-term, people will continue to demand flexibility in terms of trading. I don’t see a way we will shrink the number of trading hours,” said Sibbern, adding that while “there could also be a trend towards trading in the evening” in Europe, “I do not see a clear demand today”. (The writer is our foreign correspondent based in the UK
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