U.K. Takes Bold Steps Toward AI Leadership at London Tech Week
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s vision of making Britain an “AI maker, not an AI taker” is gaining momentum as London Tech Week gets underway.With support from NVIDIA, the U.K. is investing in sovereign AI infrastructure, cutting-edge research, and skills development — laying the foundation for AI leadership across industries.Today marks the launch of the first U.K. Sovereign AI Industry Forum, hosted by NVIDIA and some of Britain’s top companies. This new initiative brings together leading U.K. businesses — including founding members Babcock, BAE Systems, BT, National Grid, and Standard Chartered — to strengthen national economic security through advanced AI infrastructure and support for the U.K.’s growing AI startup ecosystem.We have ambitious plans to drive the next wave of AI innovation here in the U.K.,” said Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology. “It’s not just about fueling economic growth through our Plan for Change, but also maintaining our status as a global tech leader. That requires strong AI infrastructure, and I welcome NVIDIA’s role in convening top British firms to develop and deploy it nationwide.”
The U.K. has emerged as Europe’s AI powerhouse, leading in new AI startup funding and overall private investment through 2024. Since 2013, the country has attracted over $28 billion in private AI investment, fueling rapid sector growth.
New analysis from research firm Public First highlights how AI investment supports economic growth nationwide. Regions with robust AI and data center infrastructure consistently outperform others economically. Even modest increases in data center capacity could boost the U.K.’s economic output by nearly £5 billion annually. Doubling capacity could drive this benefit to £36.5 billion per year.Seizing this opportunity, cloud provider Nscale announced it will deploy 10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs in the U.K. by the end of 2026, establishing a high-performance AI facility that will bolster innovation, create jobs, and support a vibrant domestic AI ecosystem.
Meanwhile, cloud provider Nebius is adding to the momentum with the launch of its first U.K. AI factory, bringing 4,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs online. This infrastructure will provide scalable AI compute capacity to power innovation across U.K. research institutions, academia, public services — including the NHS — and beyond.Mind the (Skills) Gap
AI developers are the engine of this new industrial revolution. That’s why NVIDIA is supporting the U.K. government’s national skills drive by training developers in AI.
To support this goal, a new NVIDIA AI Technology Center in the U.K. will provide hands-on training in AI, data science and accelerated computing with support from the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute, focusing on foundation model builders, embodied AI, materials science and earth systems modeling.
Beyond training, this collaboration drives cutting-edge AI applications and research.
For example, the U.K.’s world-leading financial services industry gets a boost from a new AI-powered digital sandbox. This sandbox, a digital testing environment for safe AI innovation in financial services, will be provided by the Financial Conduct Authority, with infrastructure provided by NayaOne and supported by NVIDIA’s platform.Together, these efforts mark a major leap forward in making the U.K. a global leader in AI innovation, infrastructure, and impact.