British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at London Tech Week on Monday, unveiled a new partnership with US chipmaker Nvidia Corp and others to expand AI investment across the UK and train 7.5 million workers by 2030.
With the world’s leading tech companies attending the annual conference, including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and NVIDIA, the UK is proving itself to be the next global center for AI innovation.
Kicking off the event with a speech and then appearing alongside Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang, the PM spoke of harnessing the power of AI technology in all aspects of the private and public sectors, allowing the UK to be “an AI maker, not just an AI taker.”
Announcing a slew of initiatives to fulfill the lofty goal, Starmer said the government was “committing an extra £1 billion of funding to scale up our compute power by a factor of 20.”
Calling Britain "an incredible place to invest," Huang praised the move, noting that “the UK is the largest AI ecosystem in the world without its own infrastructure.”
"The ability to build these AI supercomputers here in the UK will naturally attract more startups, it will naturally enable all of the rich ecosystem of researchers here," Huang said.
Starmer said creating a robust digital infrastructure is a huge priority for his government. “We are going to build more labs, more data centres—and we’re going to do it much, much more quickly,” he said during the roughly 16-minute speech.
7.5 million AI workers by 2030
The biggest announcement of the day by Starmer was the government’s partnerships with 11 major companies to train 7.5 million workers in AI by 2030.
“Most people are worried that AI will take their jobs. I get it, the pace of change is relentless," Starmer posted on X later in the day.
"But AI means better public services, opportunities for our children, higher productivity, and better jobs. My government is harnessing the power of AI to deliver for working people,” he said, referring to the new "TechFirst" training initiative.
Most people are worried that AI will take their jobs. I get it, the pace of change is relentless.
undefined Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 9, 2025
But AI means better public services, opportunities for our children, higher productivity and better jobs.
My government is harnessing the power of AI to deliver for working people. pic.twitter.com/lpZrKO4x0B
Nvidia, partnering on the new training pipeline, will be investing £185 million, earmarked for the new TechFirst training program which will be “embedded” in the UK’s education system.
At least 1 million students, from secondary schools to universities, will be offered computer science and other technology classes, including a new scholarship program for top students.
Nvidia will also be offering access to "advanced computing power and bespoke AI," providing financial services firms in the early stages of AI exploration with technical expertise, better datasets, and regulatory support.
UK councils will trial AI productivity tool
The Prime Minister additionally boasted of "a powerful new AI tool," developed in-house by the UK Government's AI Incubator team in partnership with Google's Gemini, aimed at boosting productivity in municipal governments and ultimately saving taxpayer money. The plan is to have several Councils, including Exeter, Westminster, Nuneaton, and Bedworth, test out the AI tool before it would launch nationwide.
Called ‘Extract,’ Starmer said the AI tool “takes old, handwritten planning documents and puts them into digital form in seconds... Jobs that would otherwise have taken hours and hours can be done in seconds.”
The Gemini-built tool “uses the model’s advanced visual reasoning and multi-modal capabilities to help turn old planning documents –including blurry maps and handwritten notes – into clear, digital data, speeding up decision-making timelines,” said Owen Larter, Senior Director of Frontier AI Policy & Global Affairs at Google DeepMind.
"It doesn’t just show that the government can innovate, it also means faster planning decisions, which I think comes as a relief to many people in this room and beyond – both in AI and in British business more broadly," Starmer said.
Citing how AI could be driving much-needed changes across medicine, government processes, and defense capabilities, Starmer also spoke of the direct impact AI was having on the war in Ukraine.
“In three years of conflict, the way that war is being fought has changed profoundly,” he said, stating how the UK’s capabilities must be able to meet its challenges moving forward.
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