Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says UK’s AI future needs better infrastructure despite £1bn Starmer pledge

Jensen Huang

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang warned that the UK lacks the digital infrastructure required to fully leverage its potential in artificial intelligence, even as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer unveiled a £1 billion investment to boost the country’s AI capabilities. Speaking at the opening of London Tech Week on Monday, Huang praised the UK’s AI ecosystem but emphasized the urgent need for better national infrastructure, the Financial Times reported.

“The [British AI] ecosystem is really perfect for take-off,” Huang said. “It’s just missing one thing. It is surprising: this is the largest AI ecosystem in the world without its own infrastructure.”

Starmer’s AI funding pledge

Standing beside Huang, Prime Minister Starmer announced what he called a “huge increase in the size and power of Britain’s AI engine,” with a £1 billion expansion of the UK’s compute power — aiming to scale it up by a factor of 20. “We can be an AI maker, not an AI taker,” he said, framing the investment as a way to enhance public services through AI-driven innovation.

The funding is intended to accelerate the UK’s AI Research Resource, a national network of supercomputers first launched in 2023 during the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park. It is part of the government’s long-term plan to match the power of 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by 2030, as outlined in the AI Opportunities Action Plan led by venture capitalist Matt Clifford.

Nvidia’s new UK initiatives

Nvidia used the event to announce a range of new UK initiatives. The company will open an AI Technology Centre in Bristol, aimed at training developers in areas such as robotics and machine learning. In addition, it is launching a new UK Sovereign AI Industry Forum, a coalition of firms including BAE Systems, BT, and Standard Chartered, to support AI deployment across industries.

Huang’s visit also coincides with announcements from AI cloud providers Nscale and Nebius, who are planning new UK-based facilities powered by thousands of Nvidia’s most advanced chips. These will begin operations later this year.

These sovereign AI agreements, such as those recently struck with governments in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are central to Nvidia’s strategy to reduce reliance on Big Tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta — which currently make up more than half of the company’s data center revenues.

Addressing the UK’s AI funding gap

While the UK is home to global AI talent and notable start-ups like Synthesia, Wayve, and Quantexa, it still lags significantly behind the US and China in private AI investment. According to Stanford University’s 2025 AI Index Report, the UK attracted $4.5 billion in private investment in 2024 — far behind the US at $109.1 billion and China at $9.3 billion.

In an effort to improve digital governance, Nvidia is also partnering with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and fintech start-up NayaOne to develop a digital sandbox for AI testing in financial services.

AI training for UK civil servants

The UK government also announced that all civil servants will begin AI training starting this autumn. Officials will be tasked with identifying how AI can streamline their work, part of a broader plan to create a civil service “that will take more calculated risks,” according to cabinet secretary Sir Chris Wormald.

As Britain doubles down on AI infrastructure and governance, leaders hope the new investments and partnerships will help the country compete on a global scale — provided it can overcome the infrastructure shortfall highlighted by Nvidia.