UK AI ecosystem “perfect for takeoff” but lacks infrastructure, says Nvidia CEO

The CEO of the most valuable publicly traded company in the world today (Monday) said the UK AI ecosystem was ready for “takeoff” but was missing its own AI infrastructure.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, one of the most powerful people in AI, was speaking at London Tech Week, on the stage with UK prime minister Keir Starmer.

The prime minister admitted the government must convince a “sceptical” public that AI can reap benefits and improve their lives.

Huang, dressed in his trademark leather jacket, heavily praised the UK’s AI ecosystem.

Huang said the UK had “one of the richest AI communities anywhere on the planet”, highlighting its universities, startups, computer scientists, research community and VC ecosystem.

Huang said the UK AI ecosystem was “perfect for takeoff” except that the country didn’t have its own AI infrastructure.

He said: “It is surprising this is the largest AI ecosystem in the world without its own infrastructure."

Earlier this year, the UK government proposed a fillip to UK AI infrastructure as part of its AI plan, with tech firms committing £1.4bn to large data centres or tech hubs.

US cloud firm CoreWeave and Nebius, the infrastructure startup, are building data centres and AI facilities in the UK.

Today, Starmer announced that the government was committing an extra £1bn worth of funding “to scale up our compute power by a factor of 20”.

Starmer said this represented a “huge increase” in the size of the country’s “AI engine”.

He added: “We can be an AI maker and not an AI taker."

Meanwhile, Nvidia, whose chips power AI large language models (LLMs), announced several partnerships to help propel the UK AI ecosystem.

These include working with UK businesses to help them make the best use of AI, a new AI tech centre in Bristol to help train AI developers and a partnership with Barclays and Microsoft to create workspaces in London for 150 tech businesses.

However, Starmer admitted the government would have to overcome scepticism from the public.

He said: "Some people out there are sceptical. They do worry about AI taking their job.

He added: "When it comes to harnessing the power of this technology, I believe that the way we work through this together is critical and that means a partnership.”