Tech investment provides Starmer with some light relief
The Special Relationship will be on display this week, but it will also be tested. On a commercial level, things are rumbling along rather nicely; £30bn of US investment into the UK’s AI infrastructure is nothing to sniff at.
Donald Trump’s state visit comes with its own political baggage, on which more in a moment, but it also comes with a shed load of cash for the UK’s tech sector in particular.
Microsoft’s pledge of a cool £22bn is the single largest investment it has ever committed to this country, and it’s beefed up by other £1bn+ investments by the likes of Salesforce, Coreweave, OpenAI, AI Pathfinder and the AI mothership, Nvidia, whose CEO Jensen Huang has described the UK as occupying “a Goldilocks position” in the global AI race.
By this, he means the UK has managed to generate a sweet spot “where world-class talent, research and industry converge.” He could have added, “not too expensive, not too cheap.”
It’s well understood among US tech execs that UK salaries lag so far behind those in the US that investment here can generate preferable levels of bang for buck, but don’t expect Starmer to champion our new position as Silicon Valley’s preferred offshoring destination.
There is another reason why the UK is attractive; we’re not in the EU. The continental bloc has taken a typically hardline approach to AI regulation and it’s felt that the UK is making the most of its post-Brexit freedoms in this space.
The investment decisions announced last night are to be welcomed and celebrated, not least at a time when good news is hard to come by.
They will also provide Starmer with a welcome set of talking points when he finds himself dogged by questions about the raw politics of Trump’s visit, coming as it does just days after the PM sacked his ambassador to Washington for being too close to former Trump playmate, Jeffrey Epstein.
The US President can at least claim to have severed ties with Epstein in 2004, long before his crimes came to light. In contrast, Peter Mandelson was still cosying up to the predator four years later and after his conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution.
When the PM and the President kick off their press conference tomorrow, Stamer will want to focus on the tech investment but if past performance is anything to go by, Trump is highly likely to veer off script.