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Nvidia’s Jensen Huang warns that the UK lacks the digital infrastructure needed to take advantage of the possibilities of artificial intelligence as Keir Starmer pledged an additional £1 billion to expand the UK’s computing power of AI.
Working with the British Prime Minister at the opening of London Tech Week on Monday, fans praised “Goldilocks”‘s position as the UK has both “incredible” AI research talent and the biggest private investment in technology outside of the US and China.
“The (UK AI) ecosystem is perfect for takeoff,” said Nvidia chief. “It’s just one thing missing. It’s amazing. It’s the biggest AI ecosystem in a world without its own infrastructure.”
The comments came shortly after he announced what he described as “a significant increase in the size and power of British AI engines,” funding to “expand the UK’s computing power by 20 times.”
“We are AI makers and we can become AI makers rather than AI takers,” Starmer said, adding that digital infrastructure will help the UK use AI to improve public services.
The announcement is set up plans for AI cloud providers Nscale and Nebius to build new facilities in the UK, housing thousands of Nvidia’s latest chips, and will be coming online later this year.
Nvidia is seeking “sovereign AI” deals like these and large new contracts announced last month with Saudi Arabia and the UAE government.
Large deals with the country allow the semiconductor giant to diversify its business from small groups of large tech companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Meta, which currently account for more than half of the revenues in the data center.
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On Monday, Nvidia announced it would launch a new AI technology centre in Bristol to train developers building AI models, robotics and other skills.
In addition, to accelerate AI adoption, it is establishing a new institution called the British Sovereign AI Industry Forum with local companies, including BAE Systems and Standard Chartered.
Additionally, the Silicon Valley-based chipmaker is working with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and fintech startup Nayaone to create a “digital sandbox” to test AI in financial services.
The UK has several well-known AI startups, including Synthesia, Wayve, Quantexa and many other researchers working at Google Deepmind, which was founded in London more than a decade ago.
However, the gap between the UK’s funding between the US and China remains large. Data from Stanford University’s 2025 AI Index Report showed that private AI investment in the UK last year was $4.5 billion, with $100.1 billion in the US and $9.3 billion in China.
This year, the UK has announced an AI Opportunity Action Plan written by venture capitalist Matt Clifford. This called for an increase in government-owned capacity by 2030, equivalent to 100,000 of today’s Nvidia graphics processing units.
