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Britain, where the economy is forecast to be sluggish in the
coming years, is pushing for private investment to help fund new
infrastructure, particularly in growth industries like AI.
The funding, first announced at a summit hosted by Prime
Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday, will more than double
Microsoft's datacenter footprint in Britain, providing the
infrastructure crucial for new AI models to work.
"Today's announcement is a turning point for the future of AI
infrastructure and development in the UK," Sunak said in a
statement on Thursday.
Microsoft's plan comes despite comments by its president Brad
Smith in April that a decision by the country's antitrust
regulator that went against the U.S. company put the tech
industry's confidence in Britain at risk.
Since then, the UK regulator waved through a restructured
version of Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision
Blizzard, putting Britain back in Microsoft's favor.
"Microsoft is committed as a company to ensuring that the UK as
a country has world-leading AI infrastructure," Smith said in
the statement released as he hosted finance minister Jeremy Hunt
at a datacenter being constructed in north London.
As part of the deal announced on Thursday, Microsoft will bring
more than 20,000 of the most advanced Graphics Processing Units
to Britain, tech which is key to machine learning and developing
AI, the government statement said.
The investment includes a training plan to help ensure Britons
have the skills they need to build and work with AI, it added.
($1 = 0.7911 pounds)
(Reporting by Sarah Young;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
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