London Tech Week: UK Government’s £1bn push to power national AI growth

In his keynote address, Sir Keir Starmer revealed a further £1 billion in public funding to scale up national computing capacity by a factor of twenty. The move formed part of the UK’s ambition to become what he described as an “AI maker, not an AI taker,” providing essential infrastructure to support AI development across sectors.

The Prime Minister also welcomed a £1.5 million investment from fintech company Liquidity, which planned to establish its European headquarters in London. He framed the move as “another vote of confidence in Britain,” directly tied to the Government’s AI Opportunity Action Plan, released earlier in the year.

Alongside infrastructure investment, a key concern for the Government appeared to be ensuring that AI’s impact would be widely distributed, with a focus on skills and social inclusion.

The Prime Minister announced a new public-private partnership involving 11 major companies to train 7.5 million UK workers in AI by 2030. He also confirmed a new collaboration with NVIDIA to develop a domestic AI talent pipeline, with the US-based firm expanding operations in Bristol.

Further investment included a ‘tech-first’ programme designed to equip up to one million young people with digital skills, alongside £187 million allocated for AI in education. This funding would support:

• Embedding AI into secondary school curricula
• Launching new AI research scholarships at UK universities
• Providing additional support for small businesses to recruit tech talent

Starmer concluded: “We should be able to look every parent in the eye, in every region in Britain, and say, look what technology can deliver to you.”

Huang and Starmer on AI as infrastructure

Midway through the keynote, Sir Keir was joined by Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA. Huang positioned AI as a new kind of infrastructure, comparing its significance to electricity and the Internet.

He stated: “AI is both a technology and an infrastructure … It is so transformative to every single industry that it must be treated as such.”

In reference to Starmer’s earlier remarks, Huang called AI “the great equaliser,” highlighting how generative tools now allow users to “programme” computers using natural language – lowering barriers to innovation.

“The new programming language is called human … Almost anybody can do it,” Huang said. “This is going to be transformative.”

He also described the UK as having “the largest AI ecosystem in the world without its own infrastructure,” underscoring the significance of the Government’s new £1 billion commitment.

A shared future

Starmer closed the session by reinforcing the importance of collaboration between the Government and private sector, describing the country’s AI future as one to be shaped “not by either alone, but by both together.”