The UK has pledged £2bn in funding for its AI strategy, as it looks to rapidly build out sovereign compute capabilities in the face of a widening technological gulf between the country and international rivals the US and China.
UK finance minister Rachel Reeves announced the plans on Wednesday as she unveiled the country’s spending review, which laid out how government budgets will be allocated over the next three years.
“Homegrown AI has the potential to solve diverse and daunting challenges, as well as the opportunity for good jobs and investment here in Britain,” she told MPs in Parliament.
The news follows Nvidia chief Jensen Huang’s criticism of the UK for being the largest AI ecosystem in the world without its own AI infrastructure on Monday.
The £2bn pledge includes the £1bn prime minister Keir Starmer announced would be spent on building out AI compute by 2030 on Monday and another £750m for a new national supercomputer confirmed on Wednesday.
“This investment will build the UK’s sovereign AI capabilities, funding at least a twentyfold expansion of the UK’s AI Research Resource and backing UK AI companies to grow and scale through the new UK Sovereign AI Unit,” the treasury said in a statement.
The cash injections come a year after the UK government cut more than $1bn in tech and AI funding, including $800m for a national supercomputer.
Announced in January and led by Entrepreneur First’s Matt Clifford, the AI strategy laid out plans to speed up planning approvals for AI data centres, increase the country’s compute power twentyfold and set up new teams within government to implement AI tools.
The UK finance minister also said that the British Business Bank, which provides financing for startups through loans and LP commitments in VC funds, would see its total financial capacity increase by around two thirds to £25.6bn.
Reeves said this would help “pioneering businesses start up and scale up. Backing Britain’s entrepreneurs, backing Britain’s wealth creators”.
