One of the leading voices in the UK tech scene today hailed a flurry of US AI investment commitments to the UK, calling it a “much-needed step change” in UK and US relations but warned the UK was in danger of becoming AI "users, not makers".
Brent Hoberman, the co-founder of lastminute.com and executive chairman of Founders Forum Group, made the comments as Nvidia and Microsoft become the latest US tech giants to pledge significant AI investments into the UK.
Posting on LinkedIn, Hoberman said: “Make no mistake, we need these kinds of deals with our biggest tech giants. This is a significant investment, and the impact will be felt.
“But here’s the next challenge...how we make sure UK startups and scaleups actually benefit from these deals?”
He said in AI, the UK was at risk of becoming “users, not makers", saying the UK should take lessons from Europe, pointing to France backing Mistral and Germany backing Helsing. He said the UK procurement system still favoured the same global platforms.
Hoberman was echoing comments made in a FT comment piece by Mike Bracken, the UK government's former chief digital and data officer.
Hoberman urged UK private and public partnerships to prioritise talent and deploy capital at scale.
He added: “The real opportunity is in what we build next. Data centres yes, but also new national champions."
Meanwhile, hailing Nvidia's investment into the UK, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said: “The United Kingdom is building the infrastructure for the AI industrial revolution."
His comments came as Nvidia and Microsoft became the latest US tech giants to pledge major AI investments into the UK.
US chip giant Nvidia said that, along with its partners NScale, CoreWeave and others, it was investing up to £11bn in UK AI factories, deploying 120,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, which Nvidia said represented the largest infrastructure rollout in the UK’s history.
The infrastructure will be behind initiatives like OpenAI’s Stargate UK.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is investing up to $30bn in the UK’s AI infrastructure from 2025 to 2028.
This includes $15 billion in capital expenditures to build out the UK’s cloud and AI infrastructure and will be used to help build the UK’s biggest supercomputer, in partnership with Nscale.
Billions of AI investment in the UK have been pledged by US tech firms, coinciding with the visit of President Trump.
Investments include OpenAI, Nscale and Nvidia announcing a UK version of Stargate, a sovereign AI infrastructure version of OpenAI’s mammoth Stargate project.
The UK and US have also inked a “tech prosperity deal” focused on developing the fastest-growing technologies like AI, quantum and nuclear.
Professor Sebastian Weidt, CEO and co-founder, Universal Quantum, said: “It is encouraging to see quantum computing recognised at the highest levels of government. International collaboration will be vital in accelerating progress on one of the defining technologies of our age, yet Britain must not allow itself to become dependent on foreign partners for access to it.
“History reminds us that alliances cannot substitute for sovereign capability. The UK has already established itself as a global leader in quantum computing, a field that will underpin the resilience of our economy and the security of our critical infrastructure.
"Government now has a clear opportunity to safeguard sovereignty by ensuring that homegrown companies receive the long-term support required to remain both independent and globally competitive.”
Would you like to write the first comment?
Login to post comments