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Light–matter interactions are inherently slow as the wavelengths of optical and electronic states differ greatly. Surface plasmon polaritons — electromagnetic excitations at metal–dielectric interfaces — have generated significant interest because their spatial scale is decoupled from the vacuum wavelength, promising accelerated light–matter interactions. Although recent reports suggest the possibility of accelerated dynamics in surface plasmon lasers, this remains to be verified. Here, we report the observation of pulses shorter than 800 fs from hybrid plasmonic zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire lasers. Operating at room temperature, ZnO excitons lie near the surface plasmon frequency in such silver-based plasmonic lasers, leading to accelerated spontaneous recombination, gain switching and gain recovery compared with conventional ZnO nanowire lasers. Surprisingly, the laser dynamics can be as fast as gain thermalization in ZnO, which precludes lasing in the thinnest nanowires (diameter less than 120 nm). The capability to combine surface plasmon localization with ultrafast amplification provides the means for generating extremely intense optical fields, with applications in sensing, nonlinear optical switching, as well as in the physics of strong-field phenomena.