Britain has AI talent, but what about the compute?

Britain can lead on AI, but only if its firms can get the power to build it, write Grant Shapps and James Marks  One of us runs an AI business in London and is asked every few weeks by investors when he’s moving to America. The other spent years in government, including as defence secretary, worrying about what happens when a country relies on infrastructure it doesn’t control. We’ve reached the same conclusion from different directions. Britain’s AI ambitions are stalling because British firms can’t get the computing power they need on fair terms. Compute is the processing power AI runs on. It is becoming as fundamental to the economy as electricity, and as strategically important as energy security. Last week’s Budget showed the government is finally waking up to understand this. The new British Data Centre Covenant offers priority grid access to developers who invest in jobs, local communities and water. There’s £500m for AI safety and security, and £140m to back British AI c