1. Microsoft invests $30bn in UK
Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, hailed the “single biggest announcement” in the pact and insisted it was not an empty promise. The $30bn (£22bn) sets out the company’s UK budget over the next four years and refers not just to artificial intelligence infrastructure but also “ongoing operations” across the UK.
Microsoft said the number included $15bn in capital expenditure – such as on equipment, land and buildings – for AI and cloud services, areas where datacentres are key components. The other half will go on day-to-day operations such as research, sales and product development.
As part of the package, the US company said it would back an already announced project, an AI datacentre in Loughton, Essex, by becoming a core customer of its owner, the UK-based AI infrastructure company Nscale.
Smith had criticised the UK in 2023 as being “bad for business” after Microsoft’s takeover of the video games maker Activision was blocked – a move that was later unwound. He told reporters on Tuesday that Microsoft had been “encouraged” by steps taken by the governments of Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, with the latter helping on planning permission and energy access.
“We have a more stable opportunity to accelerate investment in the UK,” Smith said.
The £22bn is a significant chunk of the £31bn value the UK government placed on the pact, which also includes £5bn of expenditure from Google that the search company described as “additional investment over the next two years”. The Google figure includes capital expenditure, research and development, and related engineering, as well as work at the AI unit Google DeepMind.
2. AI growth zone in north-east England
The north-east will host an AI “growth zone”, an area that will receive special support in planning permission and energy provision for hosting AI infrastructure such as datacentres. The government said this could unlock more than 5,000 jobs and bring in £30bn in investment, although this is all hypothetical for now.
One of the datacentre sites, Blyth in Northumberland, has already been announced and is receiving £10bn in financial commitment from the US investment firm Blackstone.
The other site mentioned, at Cobalt Park in North Tyneside, features a new development: a domestic version of the US “Stargate” datacentre project championed by Trump. Nscale, OpenAI and Nvidia will develop a platform that will deploy OpenAI’s technology in the UK. The idea is that Stargate UK will help develop “sovereign” AI, where cutting-edge technology is developed and used in the UK’s interests.
As part of the first phase of Stargate UK, OpenAI will use 8,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs), the powerful computer chips that underpin AI tools such as ChatGPT. Cobalt Park will be one of several UK sites under the plan.
3. Nvidia’s £11bn announcement
Nvidia, the world’s biggest AI chipmaker, touted an £11bn injection into the UK…
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