U.K. and NVIDIA announce £1B AI push at London Tech Week
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer opened London Tech Week at Olympia, signaling a national policy shift toward AI with investments in people, platforms, and partnerships. The U.K. will invest approximately £1 billion in AI research compute by 2030, starting this year.
Huang stated AI will transform all sectors in the U.K. into tech industries. Starmer added that every government department is evaluating AI integration. The U.K. possesses a robust AI community, top universities, and the third-largest AI capital investment globally, according to Huang. He believes that building AI supercomputers in the U.K. will attract startups and enable researchers.
NVIDIA will establish an AI lab in the U.K. and collaborate to upskill developers in AI. Huang said that infrastructure fuels research, breakthroughs, and new companies.
Prime Minister Starmer announced that the U.K. will invest approximately £1 billion in AI research compute by 2030. Initiatives include:
- National AI Skills Initiative: Supported by the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute to train developers in advanced AI skills.
- NVIDIA AI Technology Center in the U.K.: Launching to accelerate research in embodied AI, material science, and earth system modeling.
- Financial Conduct Authority: Using NVIDIA tech to power its innovation sandbox for safe and secure AI experimentation.
- U.K. Government and NVIDIA Initiative: A new effort to accelerate AI-native 6G research and deployment.
- Isambard AI: The U.K.’s fastest AI supercomputer, powered by 5.5k GH200s, is set to be fully operational this summer.
“We need to showcase what we have,” Starmer said, emphasizing a two-way conversation between the government and industry. He also emphasized the U.K.’s “sovereign AI ambitions,” noting that AI reflects a nation’s culture and history.
Across Europe, countries are focusing on deploying AI at scale. Initiatives include:
- Sweden: NVIDIA is collaborating with Wallenberg Investments, AstraZeneca, Ericsson, Saab, and SEB to create the country’s first national AI infrastructure, based on the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform.
- Germany: The Leibniz Supercomputing Centre is constructing Blue Lion, a €250 million supercomputer employing the NVIDIA Vera Rubin architecture for real-time AI, simulation, and scientific applications.
- France: A joint venture involving MGX, Bpifrance, Mistral AI, and NVIDIA will establish Europe’s largest AI Campus near Paris, a 1.4 GW facility intended to develop sovereign and sustainable AI infrastructure.
Huang noted AI has advanced significantly, and NVIDIA has over 1,700 Inception members and 500 employees across four U.K. offices. NVIDIA is building ‘AI factories of the future’ with U.K. companies and powering startups such as Basecamp Research and Wayve.
Jensen Huang will headline NVIDIA GTC Paris at VivaTech on June 11 at 11:00 a.m. CEST at the Dôme de Paris. The event requires a VivaTech or GTC Paris pass to attend in person. A livestream will be available globally.