The UK government has launched a new AI Hardware Plan to bolster the country’s ability to develop and deploy AI technologies, backed by £1.1bn of funding.
Announced by Technology Secretary Liz Kendall on Monday at London Tech Week, the plan sets out how the government aims to support Britain’s semiconductor sector so that it can supply the AI industry with the essential hardware needed for scaling.
The plan includes £750m designated for a national AI supercomputer, which the government has claimed will be among the most advanced in the world at the time of deployment, currently expected to be in 2030.
Included within that figure is £400m that will go towards procuring high-powered chips with the intention to prioritise those designed in the UK.
Additionally, £120m has been designated to fund the AI Hardware Innovation Programme, which will financially support British companies in designing, developing and testing novel chips.
The plan also includes funding to expand the Scaling Inference Lab, a testing facility for inference technologies delivered by ARIA and CommonAI, as well as funding to support skills training for AI hardware, including the funding of doctoral training, undergraduate bursaries and more.
“AI is the defining currency of economic and hard power in today’s world and the countries that control the hardware behind it will hold the keys to the future,” said Kendall.
“The UK is already a global leader in chip design, and I believe this is a race Britain can win. To do that, we must back more British AI – and that means investing in the chips, computing power and skilled people behind it.
“That is exactly what this plan does, backing the British firms developing the next generation of AI hardware, so we get more jobs, more growth, and more control over the technologies our future depends on. We are backing Britain because we believe in Britain.”
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