Sovereignty remains key to the UK’s AI ambitions

The UK government’s announcement of greater investment in AI infrastructure is welcome news, says Civo’s Mark Boost – but more must be done to make that infrastructure a permanent national asset. (Image: Shutterstock)

The UK has spent years discussing its ambition to become a global leader in AI, leveraging its deep research expertise, talent, and investment ecosystem. But to lead, you have to build. Last week’s announcements at London Tech Week signal a meaningful shift – a significant commitment to building the kind of sovereign AI infrastructure here in the UK that many have been calling for. 

The Prime Minister’s pledge of £1 billion to scale the UK’s compute capacity twentyfold is a long-awaited recognition that infrastructure matters. You can’t expect to train or run models or develop next-generation agentic AI systems without making a serious, long-term investment in the tools that underpin them. That means local compute, faster connectivity, and a regulatory environment that supports, not stifles, R&D. It also means not being entirely dependent on hyperscale providers or offshore resources for some of the country’s most strategic technological needs.

NVIDIA’s new AI Technology Centre signals that the UK is building the long-term capabilities to be in control of its AI destiny. Initiatives like this have the potential to make a genuine difference. By providing hands-on training in accelerated computing, AI engineering, and model development, the centre will directly address one of the UK’s most persistent challenges: widening AI education so it can be a tool used for all. 

Too many talented developers lack access to the infrastructure they need to experiment, iterate, and deploy at scale. Giving them that access and embedding it into our wider education and training ecosystem will help build a lasting talent pool that the UK’s AI ecosystem can rely on for generations. 

There were many positives from the announcement. But we do need to think more critically about how we build resilience. Strategic autonomy in AI isn’t about isolation. It’s about ensuring that as AI systems become embedded in everything from defence to energy grids, we retain the flexibility to chart our own course. If AI is going to be woven into so many aspects of our society, control of its supporting infrastructure is essential. 

It was encouraging to see announcements today that reflect this mindset. Liquidity’s decision to establish its European HQ in London with a £1.5 billion investment adds real weight to the UK’s AI ambitions. So does the formation of the UK Sovereign AI Industry Forum, bringing together players like BAE, BT, National Grid, and Babcock to accelerate AI deployment across critical infrastructure.

But to make all this work, coordination is key. The Government needs to go beyond press releases and build a coherent, long-term strategy for national AI capability that fully leverages the UK’s innovative tech space. That means aligning incentives across public and private sectors, ensuring interoperability between initiatives, and maintaining a firm focus on developer enablement. No number of headline GPU deployments will matter if UK organisations don’t have fair access to them.

Let’s not lose sight of why this matters. AI is fast becoming a central nervous system for modern economies. From automating logistics to forecasting energy demand to designing new materials, its applications are multiplying. But if we want AI that reflects our values, transparency, fairness, and accountability, we need to be shaping the stack it runs on, not simply renting it from elsewhere.

Sovereignty has been thrown into the spotlight recently by both geopolitical volatility and concerns over the US CLOUD Act. The announcements today are a solid step in the right direction to addressing these concerns. But they must be the start of a sustained effort, not a one-off. By continuing to invest in open, sovereign, developer-friendly AI infrastructure, the UK can move from rhetoric to leadership.

Mark Boost is the chief executive of Civo.

Read more: The case for hydrogen-powered data centres