UK to surf US tech investment wave during Trump visit

With all the pomp and pageantry expected of a special relationship visit, Trump has landed in the UK for a historic second state visit. However, this is not business as usual. Alongside Trump’s top brass, the president is being accompanied by some of the world’s most influential technology leaders to lead a wave of UK-focused AI investments. 

These investments are part of a tsunami of international deals this year, which are aimed at developing “sovereign” AI infrastructure for US allies. For Starmer, this is an opportunity to showcase the UK as an inward investment hotspot, a play that has the conditions to come off, with US officials saying behind the scenes that there will be at least $10bn of investment deals in the UK technology sector. 

Such investment in AI infrastructure is much needed in the UK. Whilst its AI market is third largest globally, followed by the US and China, the UK’s digital infrastructure is behind other countries and is less advanced than its intellectual property and scientific capabilities would indicate. 

Amongst these, Nvidia and OpenAI are reported to be planning a significant investment into data centres. The UK Government is set to supply energy for the project, OpenAI providing the AI tools and technology, and Nvidia providing the chips used to power the AI models. 

Meanwhile, Google has announced that it will invest an extra £5bn in the UK over the next two years, focusing in areas such as research and engineering. There are also ongoing talks for Google to build a vast datacentre in the northeast of England on a 4,500-acre brownfield regeneration site.  

Silicon Valley is looking to the UK to power its AI ambitions for a convergence of factors, but principally for the value that its workers deliver. Software engineers in the US are “two or three times” more expensive than in the UK, according to Barney Hussey-Yeo, founder of the Cleo AI personal finance app. As a country with world-class universities and skills base, it is viewed as being well positioned to capitalise from the AI boom. 

This US vote of confidence provides welcome relief from Kier Starmer, who is facing intense domestic pressure following a series of missteps and resignations, which have brought forward questions around his political life expectancy.  

Despite the ceremony, the devil is in the detail. Analysts have raised warnings that the agreement has yet to deliver substantial alignment, delivering optics of a partnership but with no breakthroughs on AI regulation, digital services taxation and data.  

Some of Trump’s tech entourage have already voiced disquiet about the UK’s Online Safety Act, for example, citing the impact of the act on freedom of expression. As the red carpet rolls out, so too does a complex calculation of cost and reward to cement the UK’s position as a leader in the AI race.