UK and US strike tech deal as Trump arrives for state visit

LONDON: Britain and the US have struck a tech deal that could bring billions of pounds of investment to the UK as President Donald Trump arrives for his state visit.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the “tech prosperity deal” as 'a generational step change' in Britain’s relationship with the US, promising 'growth, security and opportunity across the country'. The agreement covers cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and nuclear power.
The deal is accompanied by £31 billion ($42.3 billion) in investment from US tech companies, including $30 billion from Microsoft, the largest ever in the UK. Microsoft’s investment will expand Britain’s AI infrastructure and build the country’s largest AI supercomputer. Officials said the partnership could accelerate the development of new medicines and foster research collaboration in space and defence.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall called the agreement 'a vote of confidence in Britain’s booming AI sector' that will 'deliver good jobs, life-saving treatments and faster medical breakthroughs'. Tech leaders also praised the deal. Jensen Huang, founder of Nvidia, which will deploy 120,000 advanced processors in the UK, said: 'We are at the Big Bang of the AI era — and the UK stands in a Goldilocks position, where world-class talent, research and industry converge'. Salesforce plans a £1.4 billion investment to make its UK business an AI hub for Europe, while AI Pathfinder and CoreWeave will also contribute over £2.5 billion to expand data and compute capacity.
OpenAI has partnered with Nscale to launch its Stargate data centre in northeast England. CEO Sam Altman said: 'The UK has long been a pioneer of AI... Stargate UK builds on this foundation to accelerate scientific breakthroughs, improve productivity and drive economic growth'. — dpa