Artificial Intelligence
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that British companies can access affordable compute capacity.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan
We recently announced a £1.1 billion AI Hardware Plan to back British firms developing the chips and computing power behind AI. This includes our Advance Market Commitment to equip the UK’s AI Research Resource (AIRR) with powerful next generation inference chips. AIRR provides dedicated access to the AI Security Institute and the Sovereign AI Unit, including reserved compute resource for mission-critical AI safety research, and allocated capacity for strategically selected UK AI startups. Over 600 UK projects have already been supported through AIRR infrastructure, and we are further investing £2 billion to expand our public compute offering.
We are also engaging with industry and partners across the compute ecosystem to support a competitive and resilient compute market, helping to improve availability and affordability for British businesses.
In 2025, the UK's AI sector once again attracted the third highest level of private investment in the world, maintaining our position as the largest recipient of AI investment in Europe. [Source: ai_index_report_2026.pdf]
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