In a move hailed as “generational step change”, the United Kingdom and United States have signed their first-ever tech deal, cementing a sweeping partnership designed to accelerate breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and nuclear energy.
Announced on 16 September during US President Donald Trump’s second state visit to Britain, the Tech Prosperity Deal will see a £31bn injection of private investment in the country’s AI infrastructure from top US technology companies, including Microsoft, Google and OpenAI.
The government also announced the creation of an AI Growth Zone in northeast England, which aims to generate more than 5,000 new jobs and potentially attract up to £30bn in private investment.
The US and UK are “laying the foundations for a future where together we are world leaders in the technology of tomorrow, creating highly skilled jobs, putting more money in people’s pockets and ensuring this partnership benefits every corner of the United Kingdom,” said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a statement.
Investments in health tech and nuclear energy
Under the Tech Prosperity Deal, the two countries will jointly fund research programmes to develop quantum computers and new AI models that can speed up work on drug discovery, precision medicine and targeted treatments for cancer and chronic diseases.
Another part of the deal focuses on nuclear power, with US and UK scientists working together to fast-track progress towards commercial fusion power with the goal of creating abundant, zero-carbon energy. It also includes measures to cut the time it takes for a nuclear project to get a licence, enabling companies to build new nuclear power stations more quickly.
Expanding AI infrastructure
Building out the UK’s AI infrastructure is another pillar of the new deal, as the country works towards its ambition to become an AI powerhouse.
Microsoft committed US$30bn (£22bn) – its largest ever investment in the UK – to expanding cloud and AI data centres across the country, including a partnership with British AI infrastructure provider Nscale to develop the country’s largest AI supercomputer.
At the same time, the new AI Growth Zone near the city of Newcastle will see Nscale team up with OpenAI and chipmaker NVIDIA to establish Stargate UK, an infrastructure platform designed to deploy OpenAI’s technology in the UK.
The zone is expected to increase its energy capacity to 1.1GW by 2031, becoming one of Europe’s biggest data centres.
Google, CoreWeave and other US firms are also investing billions into data centres, chip development and energy-efficient infrastructure in the UK, which has already received £44bn worth of private sector investment in AI data centres over the past 12 months.
This latest tech deal comes as the UK is hoping to improve its tariff status with the US, its single largest trading partner. In May, the two countries struck an agreement that reduced some of the levies imposed by Trump, but discussions about eliminating the 25% tariff the US has placed on British steel imports have paused.