Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer opened London Tech Week with a new AI compute strategy and a series of investment announcements from technology companies, together amounting to several billion pounds in public and private spending.
Among the largest pledges, AMD said it would invest GBP £2 billion in the UK over the next five years, while Nebius committed about GBP £1.7 billion to expand AI infrastructure in the country. Starmer also announced GBP £400 million for specialist AI compute under a national strategy, and the Mayor of London unveiled a GBP £12 million package to help small and medium-sized businesses adopt AI.
The announcements came as new figures highlighted continued strength in the UK technology market. Tech Nation valued the sector at GBP £1.2 trillion and said UK AI startups had raised more than GBP £8.2 billion in venture capital in the first half of the year. Those figures underpinned the Prime Minister's claim that UK startups had attracted close to half of all European technology investment so far this year.
Separate data from Omdia forecast that IT spending across Europe would rise 8.2% this year to USD $1.3 trillion, the fastest pace since 2021. That backdrop framed the opening sessions around the UK's position in artificial intelligence, domestic infrastructure, skills and access to talent.
Compute push
The government's new funding is intended to buy specialist AI compute. Although few details were given on the structure of the programme, the announcement places access to computing capacity at the centre of the UK's industrial approach to AI.
AMD said its planned investment would support compute infrastructure in partnership with the University of Cambridge, research and development work with Imperial College, and direct investment in UK startups. The commitment brings together university research, infrastructure and early-stage company funding in a single UK package.
Nebius outlined a separate infrastructure plan focused on AI capacity. It said the investment would fund three new deployments of NVIDIA infrastructure and scale to 65 MW of capacity by 2027, alongside an expansion of its commercial and AI research and development hub in London.
The scale of the private-sector commitments underlines how demand for AI computing resources is shaping investment decisions across Europe. It also reflects a broader contest among governments to secure domestic access to data centres, chips and cloud infrastructure as AI systems require more processing power.
Support for smaller firms
In London, the support package for smaller businesses is designed to widen AI adoption beyond large companies and well-funded startups. Developed by London & Partners, the programme will invest GBP £4 million a year over three years in readiness assessments, expert mentoring and tailored guidance for small businesses.
The package targets a persistent gap in technology uptake among smaller firms, many of which lack the in-house expertise or budget to test and deploy AI tools. City Hall is betting that practical support, rather than broad rhetoric, will help push adoption further into the mainstream business base.
London Tech Week's organisers described the event as a focal point for decisions on the UK and Europe's next phase of technology growth. Now in its 13th year, the gathering has brought together political leaders, technology executives, scientists and investors from 130 countries, they said.
"This is the most important London Tech Week we've ever hosted. Our focus for the week is clear: how AI is transforming industries and outcomes, building resilience through tech sovereignty, and the next frontier of deep tech, amid what is undoubtedly Europe's decisive decade," said Carolyn Dawson OBE, Chief Executive Officer of Founders Forum Group and Lead for London Tech Week.
Other speakers on the main stage included executives from Microsoft UK and Ireland, AWS UK and Ireland, and OpenAI, alongside investor and policy figures. The opening day agenda reflected a mix of government policy, infrastructure spending and commercial interest in the UK market.
"AI is moving at an incredible pace and the opportunities are huge for the UK and London. We have the investment, talent, and real-world application all in the capital, now it is upon us all to make sure the benefits of AI are felt right across the business community and wider economy," said Janet Coyle CBE, Managing Director at London & Partners.