Leading tech firms plan to invest over $40 billion in the UK’s artificial intelligence sector by 2028, boosting the country’s position in the AI market.
Microsoft announced a $30 billion investment to develop AI infrastructure, including building the UK’s largest supercomputer with over 23,000 GPUs in partnership with UK-based cloud provider Nscale. This comprises $15.5 billion for capital expansion and $15.1 billion for operations.
Nvidia is investing $15 billion, deploying 120,000 Blackwell GPUs—the largest such rollout in Europe—alongside partners Nscale and U.S. firm CoreWeave, which is also increasing its UK investment to £2.5 billion.
“This will truly make the U.K. an AI maker, not an AI taker,” David Hogan from Nvidia said.
Google pledged $6.8 billion, including opening a new data centre near London expected to create 8,250 jobs annually. OpenAI plans “Stargate U.K.” with Microsoft backing to deploy up to 8,000 GPUs initially, scaling to 31,000, with the first phase in Newcastle.
Salesforce is upping its UK investment to $6 billion from $4 billion, with CEO Marc Benioff stating, “We are doubling down on our long-standing commitment to the UK.” Salesforce’s UK head Zahra Bahrololoumi noted that President Trump’s visit “reaffirms the very important relationship between the U.K. and U.S.”
The investments come as Prime Minister Keir Starmer manages political upheaval, with Starmer and Trump set to sign a deal on Wednesday to boost cooperation in AI, quantum computing and nuclear technology.
Microsoft President Brad Smith acknowledged past regulatory challenges, recalling the UK’s initial block of Microsoft’s $69 billion Activision Blizzard deal in 2023.
“I haven’t always been optimistic every single day about the business climate in the U.K.,” he said, but added, “I am very encouraged by the steps that the government has taken over the last few years.”