Microsoft, a huge player in the tech industry, has pledged a substantial £2.5 billion to strengthen the AI environment in the UK. This is a big chunk of the larger international investment wave that the government presented on Sunday.
Microsoft’s massive investment is expected to bring a slew of new data centers, as well as ‘thousands’ of graphics processing units, and critical circuits powering AI applications, right into the heart of the UK. The statement was made as part of the government’s grand reveal of a £29.5 billion commitment to the country, which was announced on Monday at the Global Investment Summit at Hampton Court Palace.
The tech sector isn’t the only one investing heavily; the Ellison Institute of Technology has set aside £1 billion for the expansion of its R&D-focused Oxford Campus. Concurrently, SBI Investment, a Japanese venture capital fund, has disclosed its lead position in a significant $100 million (£79.3 million) financing raise directed at Oxford Quantum Circuits.
In response to the surge of overseas capital, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared, “Attracting global investment is at the heart of my plan for growing the economy.” Inward investment is producing high-quality new employment and driving growth across the country, with new financing coming into important industries such as clean energy, health sciences, and sophisticated technology.”
A Microsoft representative promised that further information on the tech giant’s AI investment will be revealed later this week, even if the timing for its massive £2.5 billion investment is still unknown.
“Significant investment in UK infrastructure is required due to the growing demand for AI services and the acceleration of AI capabilities,” the Microsoft representative confirmed.
Artificial intelligence applications have proliferated, such as Microsoft’s ChatGPT, an advanced chatbot, and this has led to an exponential increase in demand for the technology needed to run and train these systems.
In an attempt to improve access to AI computing, the government recently announced in the Autumn Statement an additional investment of £500 million over the following two years. This bolsters the estimated £1.5 billion in computing investment that is planned overall, with plans to build AI supercomputers in Bristol and Cambridge to further establish the country’s AI capabilities.
