An average of £200 million a day in private sector investment has been funnelled into the UK’s AI sector since last summer, says the UK Government.
In addition, more than £14 billion pounds of investment into the UK and thousands of new jobs have been confirmed since its AI Opportunities Action Plan was published, it said.
It follows £25 billion worth of new investment into the UK’s data centre infrastructure announced at the Global Investment Summit last autumn, bringing the total to £39 billion in the last six months.
The UK Government said a wave of global companies have put their weight behind the UK’s new vision for the technology unveiled by the Prime Minister and Technology Secretary. It says this ‘cements the UK’s position as the global destination for AI'.
American AI cloud-computing company CoreWeave has set to work using cutting edge NVIDIA technology to ramp up the UK’s compute capacity – a key pillar of the UK Government’s new vision for AI. They are doing this at their Data Centre sites in Crawley and London Docklands – their first bases in the UK – rolling out a new compute platform by delivering state-of-the-art processors through its specialized cloud platform, purpose-built to provide highly performant and efficient infrastructure for AI workloads. This has opened up a new world of processing power to Britain’s innovators, and follows the company’s decision to base its European Headquarters in London and invest £1.75 billion into the UK in 2024.
Putting the right building blocks in place to help British companies scale up and become AI leaders is also central to the new blueprint set out by the UK Government, it said. Synthesia – a London based company which is the market leader in software for AI-generated video content – has seen a successful funding round increase their value to $2.1 billion. This investment will support Synthesia’s growth and expansion ambitions, as it aims to become one of Britain’s most valuable AI companies.
Secretary of State for Science, Technology, and Innovation, Peter Kyle said:
“The steps we’re taking forward from Matt Clifford’s AI Opportunities Action Plan represent a step change in how the UK manages this technology – unlocking a fresh start for our economy and for working people.
“By attracting more than £14 billion in new investment and thousands of fresh jobs since unveiling our new blueprint from companies across the globe, the message is clear – the UK’s pull as a magnet for AI innovation and growth will only go from strength to strength.”
Tech Nation – part of Founders Forum group – Merantix, and Onfido Founder Husayn Kassai, in partnership with Techspace, have also committed to launching a new dedicated AI hub in London. The London AI Hub will serve as a new epicentre for collaboration and innovation based in Farringdon.
Nscale also committed to delivering a $2.5 billion investment to support the UK’s data centre infrastructure over the next three years. They have also put pen to paper on a contract to build the largest UK sovereign AI data centre in Loughton, Essex by 2026. The site is expected to be up and running in late 2026, unlocking more than 750 jobs during its construction and a further 250 permanent roles which will then drive forward its work.
Further support has also come from Vantage Data Centers, who are committed to continuing to expand their footprint in the UK, with a more than £12 billion funding commitment which will deliver 11,500 jobs across the UK and will meet the growing demand for cloud-based services and technology.
French AI giant Mistral also unveiled plans to make the UK their home from home with a new office in London – its first European base outside France – with plans to double its UK workforce by the end of 2025. Kyndryl – the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider and a leading IT consultancy – has also announced plans to create up to 1,000 AI-related jobs in Liverpool over the next three years. This new tech hub will share the UK Government’s ambition to roll AI out across the country to help grow the economy and foster the next generation of talent.
