Britain unveils ambitious plan to turbocharge AI

Britain has announced a sweeping plan and a hefty bet on artificial-intelligence investment to deliver a “decade of national renewal”.

The “Plan for Change” envisages investment in neural networks to raise public-sector efficiency, the creation of geographic “AI growth zones”, and support for key infrastructure including data centres and research clusters.

Private firms have, it is claimed, pledged $17 billion and 13,250 jobs to deliver the plan.

Among the more detailed measures:

• designation of Culham as the first AI growth zone;
• a twentyfold increase in state-owned compute capacity and work on a supercomputer;
• use of the new National Data Library to store and use public information in AI development;
• a new Energy Council to study AI models’ electricity consumption.

The plan draws on 50 recommendations by venture capitalist Matt Clifford, who has advised the current and previous administrations.

“Artificial intelligence will spur incredible changes in our country. But the industry needs a government that is on its side, not sitting on its hands and not letting the benefits slip through our fingers. In a world of fierce competition we cannot stand aside. We must move quickly and act decisively to win the global race. Our plan will make Britain a world leader,” — said Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The government expects the plan to add £47 billion ($57.36 billion) to the economy over the next decade.

According to a Stanford University ranking, Britain is third in the world for AI development, behind only the United States and China.

Expert reaction

The investment community broadly welcomed the move, with caveats.

“Although we welcome the initiative, this will be a marathon, not a sprint. Regular changes and course corrections will be needed to ensure adoption and then to help organizations […]”, — commented Simon Murdoch, managing partner at Episode 1 Ventures.

Andrew Scott, head of 7percent Ventures, stressed the importance of coordinated work across government to deliver the plan.

“The plan will not be implemented unless other policymakers align their actions with the government […]”, — the expert emphasized.

Luke Alvarez, general partner and managing director at Hiro Capital, expressed surprise at the UK government’s intent to assume AI commitments. He added that current policy is incompatible with the promises.

Tech giants Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI have welcomed the plan.

Building an OpenAI rival

The AI growth zones and National Data Library are intended to enable sovereign models that do not depend on Silicon Valley.

To date, this has run into difficulties for lack of funding. Venture investors recommended that pension funds raise their allocations to promising but risky startups. They control $7 trillion. Devoting 5% of that would be enough, CEO of Antler Magnus Grimeland stressed.

First steps

Cloud-focused firm CoreWeave has launched its first data centres outside the United States, choosing Britain.

In May 2024, the company opened its European headquarters in London. It also announced plans to launch two data centres in the country.

The first data center went live in October, the second in December. Both use specialized AI processors from Nvidia.

In June, mining company Core Scientific signed a 12-year contract with CoreWeave to provide 200 MW of infrastructure capacity for housing Nvidia GPUs.