Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour) on Monday, 22 June 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 25 June 2026 (named day). It was answered by Kanishka Narayan (Labour) on Thursday, 25 June 2026 on behalf of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Artificial Intelligence: Finance

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment has been made of the potential impact on (a) UK business, (b) the UK tech industry and (c) wider impacts of decreases in AI funding.

Answer

We recently announced a £1.1 billion AI Hardware Plan to back British firms developing the chips and computing power behind AI. This includes our Advance Market Commitment to equip the UK’s AI Research Resource (AIRR) with powerful next generation inference chips. AIRR provides dedicated access to the AI Security Institute and the Sovereign AI Unit, including reserved compute resource for mission-critical AI safety research, and allocated capacity for strategically selected UK AI startups. Over 600 UK projects have already been supported through AIRR infrastructure, and we are further investing £2 billion to expand our public compute offering.

We are also engaging with industry and partners across the compute ecosystem to support a competitive and resilient compute market, helping to improve availability and affordability for British businesses.

In 2025, the UK's AI sector once again attracted the third highest level of private investment in the world, maintaining our position as the largest recipient of AI investment in Europe. [Source: ai_index_report_2026.pdf]

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
11729
Session
2026-27
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Business Finance Industry Technology Artificial intelligence
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk