"Microsoft has unveiled its largest ever UK investment, committing £22 billion over the next four years to build Britain's biggest artificial intelligence supercomputer and expand its data centre network. The announcement, timed to coincide with President Trump's state visit, dwarfs other Big Tech pledges and forms the centrepiece of £31 billion in new US-led tech investment. Half of Microsoft's spend will go towards capital expansion, while the other half will bolster its UK operations, which already employ 6,000 people."
"Brad Smith, the company's president and vice chair, described the move as both a " vote of confidence " in Britain and a bid to deepen US-UK economic ties. Two years ago, Smith had publicly criticised Britain's business climate after the competition watchdog temporarily blocked Microsoft's Activision takeover. "The climate in London today is so much more hospitable to investment than it was a few years ago," he told reporters, adding: "We're focused on British pounds, not empty tech promises.""
"Microsoft will partner with British data centre operator NScale to build the new supercomputer, which will run on 23,000 of Nvidia's latest AI chips. Microsoft has guaranteed to purchase capacity, ensuring financial security for the venture. At the same time, Nvidia confirmed it will allocate 120,000 of its GPUs to the UK - its largest European deployment to date - with half being the ultra-powerful Grace-Blackwell Ultra series."
Microsoft will invest £22 billion over four years to build Britain's largest artificial intelligence supercomputer and expand its data centre network. The investment is part of £31 billion in new US-led tech investment and coincides with President Trump's state visit. Half of the spend will fund capital expansion and half will strengthen UK operations that employ 6,000 staff. Microsoft will partner with British data centre operator NScale to build the supercomputer using 23,000 Nvidia AI chips and will guarantee to purchase capacity. Nvidia will allocate 120,000 GPUs to the UK, including Grace-Blackwell Ultra series, distributed via CoreWeave and NScale. CoreWeave will invest £1.5 billion. The hardware will support Stargate UK, a government-backed initiative to train next-generation AI models with Nvidia, NScale and OpenAI.
Read at Business Matters
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