President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK has delivered pledges to invest a combined £150 billion ($205 billion) in Britain over several years, mainly from US tech giants and financial groups.
The total amount, announced by Britain’s Labour government, centres on driving forward the artificial intelligence sector, which is expected to create thousands of UK jobs.
“It is the biggest investment package of its kind in British history,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said ahead of signing a “Tech Prosperity Deal” on Thursday along with Trump.
The deal, which follows a UK-US trade agreement earlier this year that lowered some tariffs imposed by Trump, includes cooperation on nuclear, quantum, and space technology.
The single biggest planned investment comes from US private equity firm Blackstone, which said it would plough £90 billion into UK assets over the next decade.
Going the other way, British pharmaceutical group GSK pledged a multi-billion-dollar investment in the United States.
The investment bonanza comes with Starmer under pressure on the domestic front amid a stagnant UK economy and some unrest within his own Labour party.
Here is a look at the planned investments.
– Big Tech –
The first deals unveiled feature US technology giants.
Microsoft announced its “largest ever commitment to the UK”, a $30 billion investment over four years, half of which will be spent on cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
It includes plans to build Britain’s largest supercomputer.
“We’re committed to… ensuring America remains a trusted and reliable tech partner for the United Kingdom,” said Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella.
Google, meanwhile, plans a UK investment of £5 billion over the next two years to power its AI drive, help “fortify cybersecurity”, and create 8,250 jobs annually.
But in the wake of the announcement, former British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who in January announced he was stepping down as Meta’s president of global affairs, accused the UK of being a “vassal state technologically”.
In a speech followed by British media, Clegg questioned why the UK is unable to “create a trillion-dollar tech company of the future” or keep hold of tech entrepreneurs.
– Nvidia, Stargate UK –
British firm Nscale has partnered with ChatGPT maker OpenAI and chip giant Nvidia to establish a UK version of Stargate—a large-scale AI infrastructure initiative.
The government said the project is aimed at “developing a platform designed to deploy OpenAI’s technology on sovereign infrastructure in the UK.”
Working alongside UK firms, Nvidia pledged to deploy a total of 120,000 advanced GPU chips across the country, representing its biggest-ever rollout in Europe.
– GSK –
The drug giant said it will invest $30 billion in the US over the next five years, as pharmaceuticals face pressure from Trump to move production to the world’s biggest economy.
GSK will expand research and development investments and production capacities, the company said, including a $1.2 billion plan to build a biologics factory in Pennsylvania for developing respiratory and cancer treatments.
– Blackstone –
The group gave no details of the nature of its planned investments, which come after its announcement last year that it would invest £10 billion in an AI data centre in northern England.
Bank of America, BlackRock, Citigroup, PayPal, and S&P Global are together investing around £1.75 billion in their UK operations.
