Microsoft has unveiled its biggest ever investment in the UK, a £22 billion commitment that promises to put Britain at the forefront of the AI revolution.
The investment in an AI supercomputer and data-centre network forms the bulk of a £31bn package from US companies dubbed the “Tech Prosperity Deal”.
Among the beneficiaries is Scotland-based DataVita which is partnering with American AI cloud company CoreWeave to build one of Europe’s largest data centres.
The deal has been signed between the UK government and several US tech giants and coincides with Donald Trump’s second state visit to the UK.
About half of the Microsoft investment will be spent on the company’s existing operations in the UK, where it employs 6,000 people.
The investment will tie-in with programmes which are driving new technologies to solve a range of issues from hearing loss to climate change.
Microsoft president Brad Smith who previously criticised the UK as a place to do business, told a press conference: “The climate in London today is so much more hospitable to investment than it was a few years ago.”
He said the new funding was a vote of confidence in Britain and would “strengthen the economic ties that benefit both sides of the Atlantic”. Mr Trump was not involved in the decision to invest in the UK, he said.
Microsoft will work with NScale, a British data centre business, to build the new supercomputer in Essex, using 23,000 of the most advanced AI chips made by Nvidia, and is acting as a guaranteed customer.
Nvidia announced that it is allocating 120,000 of its cutting-edge AI processors to the UK, its biggest deployment in Europe.
Earlier yesterday, Google announced it was investing an additional £5bn in the UK over the next two years, including spending on Google DeepMind, its British-founded AI research unit.
Salesforce announced £1.4bn of investment in the UK until 2030, while BlackRock has pledged £500 million for data centres.
The UK government said there was “potential for more than 5,000 jobs and billions in private investment” in north-east England, which has been designated an “AI growth zone”.
Last year, the government announced a £10bn investment into a data centre to be built near Blyth, Northumberland.
It has now announced another data centre project called Stargate UK from OpenAI, chipmaker Nvidia, semiconductor company Arm and Nscale, which will be based at Cobalt Park in the county.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the US-UK deal marked “a generational step change in our relationship with the US”.
He added that the agreement was “creating highly skilled jobs, putting more money in people’s pockets and ensuring this partnership benefits every corner of the United Kingdom”.
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