As part of the US President’s State Visit, the UK and US have agreed a landmark Tech Prosperity Deal designed to accelerate collaboration on artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and civil nuclear energy.
The agreement comes alongside a combined £31 billion investment from US tech giants including Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI and CoreWeave into the UK’s AI infrastructure, ranging from new data centres to advanced computer chips. The figure includes Google’s £5 billion investment announced yesterday.
“This Tech Prosperity Deal marks a generational step change in our relationship with the US, shaping the futures of millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic, and delivering growth, security and opportunity up and down the country,” said Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“By teaming-up with world-class companies from both the UK and US, we’re laying the foundations for a future where together we are world leaders in the technology of tomorrow, creating highly skilled jobs, putting more money in people’s pockets and ensuring this partnership benefits every corner of the United Kingdom.”
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall promised the partnerships “will deliver good jobs, life-saving treatments and faster medical breakthroughs for the British people. Our world-leading tech companies and scientists will be working together to transform lives across Britain.”
Calling the agreement “a vote of confidence in Britain’s booming AI sector,” she added that it will “boost growth and deliver tens of thousands of skilled jobs.”
The Government said the Tech Prosperity Deal will drive advances across multiple sectors. According to the announcement, “millions of patients could receive life-saving treatments faster, as the UK and US partner up to develop revolutionary quantum computers and open new avenues to use AI in targeted treatments which can aid drug discovery.”
Communities will also see direct benefits, with a new AI Growth Zone in the North East expected to attract billions of pounds of investment and generate jobs.
Building the UK’s largest supercomputer
Microsoft is pledging “a $30 billion (£22 billion) investment in AI infrastructure and ongoing operations across the UK – marking the largest financial commitment it has ever made in the UK.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said: “We’re committed to creating new opportunity for people and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic… That is why we are doubling down on our investment in the UK, investing more than $30 billion over four years, including building the country’s largest supercomputer.”
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This follows renewed commitments from Oracle and AWS to UK investment. Oracle has committed to expanding the AI infrastructure it provides to the UK government reaffirming its $5 billion investment over the next five years. Amazon also earlier this year announced a commitment to build and operate datacentres across the UK with an £8 billion investment.
Also today, NVIDIA announced plans to deploy “120,000 advanced GPUs across the UK, representing its biggest ever rollout in Europe to date.”
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang described the partnership as historic: “We are at the Big Bang of the AI era – and the United Kingdom stands in a Goldilocks position, where world-class talent, research and industry converge. By building state-of-the-art AI infrastructure and investing in British startups, we are unlocking the power of AI for the UK – fuelling breakthroughs, creating jobs, and igniting the next industrial revolution.”
OpenAI will partner with British firm Nscale on Stargate UK, a project to establish the country’s most powerful supercomputer.
“The UK has been a longstanding pioneer of AI,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. “Stargate UK builds on this foundation to help accelerate scientific breakthroughs, improve productivity, and drive economic growth.”
Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale, said: “We’re delighted to announce Nscale’s commitment to UK AI infrastructure today, including through Stargate UK and building the most powerful supercomputer in the country with Microsoft. As a UK-based company, we’re showing how we can be makers, not takers, of the most important technology of our time.”
Other commitments include CoreWeave’s £1.5 billion investment in AI datacentre capacity, Salesforce’s “additional $2 billion (£1.4 billion) in investment in its UK business through 2030,” and AI Pathfinder’s £1 billion investment in compute infrastructure.
Meanwhile, BlackRock will provide £500 million to expand enterprise datacentres. James Seppala, chairman of Blackstone Europe, called the AI Growth Zone designation for its Northumberland project “a transformational investment for the region… with the potential to deliver substantial benefits to the country and local communities, by driving innovation, creating high-skilled jobs, and solidifying the UK’s position as a global AI leader.”
Future of quantum computing
The deal also highlights joint UK-US progress in quantum technology. Oxford Quantum Circuits has already installed New York City’s first quantum computer, while US firm IonQ is opening its new European hub in Oxford following “a $1 billion merger with UK start-up Oxford Ionics.”
Michael Intrator, CEO of CoreWeave, said the UK’s strategy would help set “a new global standard” for sustainable compute. “Our investment in the UK will establish one of the world’s largest concentrations of state-of-the-art, sustainable compute, unlocking new opportunities for innovation, economic growth, and scientific discovery.”
