The speech made by Liz Kendall, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on 9 June 2026.
I want to talk about a great British success story.
It’s a story of British talent, British ingenuity, British enterprise, and ambition.
A story with one central theme: that this country is uniquely placed to thrive and prosper in the age of AI, to seize the incredible opportunities, and face the challenges that this powerful technology brings.
And today, together, we are writing Britain’s next chapter on winning the race for our future.
Winning for Britain and the British people.
With the talent in this room and with a Labour Government that knows our best days lie ahead.
I don’t need to tell you about the huge opportunities AI brings.
Faster research, new treatments, and even cures for diseases. A transformation in our productivity, breakthroughs in clean energy, and so much more besides.
And the speed of change is dizzying.
In the last seven years AI models have gone from completing tasks toddlers can do to surpassing PhD level intelligence, with some model capabilities now doubling every four months.
The potential for discovery, innovation and wealth creation can be intoxicating. But we also know AI brings real challenges and risks.
For our defence and national security, for people’s jobs and livelihoods, and inequality.
And, through the power of social media and the spread of mis- and disinformation, risks for our democracy too.
Dealing with these risks can seem daunting, even overwhelming, leading to some to say: enough – pull up the drawbridge. Stop AI.
But my view – from my time in politics and the lessons we learn from history – is that we are not powerless in the face of technological change.
We have agency. We can act. After all, that is what politics and government are for.
We cannot – and must not – retreat from progress as other political parties and politicians argue.
Doing so would be a betrayal of British talent, and British interests.
And it wouldn’t work even if we tried.
Because the choice isn’t between having AI or not.
The choice is between shaping AI according to our interests and values, so it works for everyone in this country, or being left at its mercy and whim.
This government’s choice is clear.
We will seize the opportunities and tackle the challenges AI inevitably brings, so we shape this powerful technology to work for all.
I believe Britain is in a better position than almost any other country to reap the rewards of AI and make it work for our people.
Because our huge strengths give us vital skin in the game.
Our universities are the envy of the world. We have won more Nobel prizes per capita than any other major economy. A superb talent pool – much of which is right here in this room today.
An amazing, thriving tech ecosystem.
Our pragmatic, not dogmatic, approach to regulation.
A deep well of high-quality data, and our world-leading organisations like the AI Security Institute.
All of these alongside Britain’s long-held strengths – the world’s language, the rule of law, our stability and unwavering belief in Parliamentary democracy.
I’m clearly not the only one who sees this incredible potential.
Last year, Britain attracted more venture capital than France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland combined.
And already this year, almost half of all VC funding in Europe has been invested in Britain – a 16-year high.
Just look at the incredible companies backing Britain and growing in Britain.
DeepMind, Anthropic, Open AI – all expanding or opening offices here. Isomorphic Labs: using AI to completely reshape medical research, cutting years off the development of new drugs – bringing hope to families everywhere.
Ineffable: the new AI superintelligence company, founded by David Silver, which has just raised $1.1 billion in funding – the largest seed round in European history.
And Wayve: a home-grown British success story that, in under a decade, has gone from two PhD students, driving around Cambridge with a camera on the roof, to a global tech titan, valued at £6.6 billion.
Well done, Mr Kendall.
And our strengths aren’t just here in London. Far from it.
They’re in Liverpool, where I visited last week to see how AI is transforming materials chemistry; taking months off testing times for new consumer products used in millions of homes across the country.
Newcastle – the home of Sage, one of the largest tech firms in the country.
In Cardiff, where Space Forge is revolutionising in-space manufacturing.
Edinburgh – home of one of the UK’s largest semiconductor clusters and the Edinburgh Parallel Computer Centre.
And they are in Bristol, home of semiconductor innovator Graphcore and our Isambard supercomputer.
Great British AI enterprise and skill, driving innovation and growth right across the land.
Britmaxxing AI industrial policy.
But I’m not resting on our laurels. And I bet you aren’t either.
The white heat of fierce AI competition combined with the lightning speed of change means we must go further and faster to turbo charge our existing strengths and reap the benefits throughout our economy.
Yesterday, at our AI adoption summit, I set out the government’s plans to make Britain the fastest AI adopting country in the G7 through a partnership with businesses and workers, backed by an initial government investment of over £200m.
Today I want to talk about how we double down on our AI strengths and win the race for Britain, with the next generation of Brit boosting, Brit maxxing, modern industrial policy.
When I describe this government’s approach, I often make the comparison with the Olympics.
For those of you old enough to remember, we went from a shameful 36th place in the medals table in Atlanta, in 1992, to second, behind only the US, two decades later.
We took what some call a ‘no compromise’ approach. Giving the most resources to our best performing sports, building the best teams, backing our best chances.
I think there is a lot we can learn from this for UK innovation.
If we want gold medal AI, we have to be strategic and lean into our priorities where we have a competitive edge.
That’s why earlier this year, I announced we will make a decisive shift towards backing more British AI companies, especially in the areas where we have real strengths – like life sciences, AI hardware and new approaches to foundational models.
This shift is critical for two main reasons.
First, we must reap more of the economic benefits AI brings right here in the UK.
So we demonstrate AI isn’t just for a powerful few but brings real, tangible improvements for British jobs, livelihoods and opportunities.
And second, when AI is the engine of economic power and hard power, and when 70% of global AI compute is now controlled by just 5 companies, we must gain greater sovereign control over this increasingly powerful technology.
For Britain, AI sovereignty isn’t about isolationism or attempting to go it alone.
It’s about building the best as well as using the best.
So we increase Britain’s leverage by being a keystone in the global tech architecture. An indispensable partner.
At the heart of our plans is Sovereign AI, which we launched in April – a major step which I believe will be one of the single most important things this government does to build a better future for our country.
SovAI is different from anything government has done before: harnessing the speed of venture, backed by the weight of the nation.
It will invest £500m in British AI companies to start up, scale up and win globally
And – crucially – it will offer the key to unlocking much wider government support where it can make a real difference.
Providing fully funded access to the UK’s largest super computers, fast tracking global talent, with super priority visa decisions and free visas for R&D.
Working seamlessly with the British Business Bank and its £2bn annual investment to take companies to the next stage.
And mobilising the huge power and potential of government procurement to back the best of Britain.
The interest in SovAI has been overwhelming and they’ve already made direct investments in brilliant companies like Callosum, Ineffable and Isomophic labs.
I want to thank James, Suzanne, Josephine and the entire team for all their amazing work. I have no doubt this is just the start of what they will achieve – and they’ll have my full backing every step of the way.
And we are not stopping there.
Yesterday we published our new AI Hardware Plan – which I promised just a month ago.
One of the areas where we have a genuine advantage on the world stage is in semiconductors, and chip design.
Right now the global AI chips market is growing at an annual rate of 30% and expected to reach $1 trillion in the early 2030s.
If Britain could secure just 5% of this market it would bring $50 billion in revenue to the UK with tens of thousands of high paid jobs in tech.
There are those who say this race is already lost. That it is too late to challenge the dominance of the established players.
I don’t know if it’s due to my inherent competitiveness, but I do not accept such defeatism.
We have a rich history of excelling at hardware.
The first programmable computer. The first electronic memory.
The first commercial computer, first parallel computer and the first widely used chip IP model all happened right here in the UK.
Today, a single British company – Arm – is behind the most widely used processor design on Earth.
In almost every smartphone, tablet and in more and more AI servers all over the world.
It has also just become the UK’s most valuable company, by market cap.
And AI compute is rapidly diversifying, with different hardware needed for different tasks.
This shift provides real openings for new entrants and specialist hardware that couldn’t have been predicted, even a few years ago.
And it is already happening.
Just weeks ago, British chip company Fractile announced their latest $220 million dollar funding round.
Following Olix – another brilliant UK chip start-up – with their own $220 million dollar round.
That’s nearly half a billion dollars flowing into UK chip companies in the space of just a few months.
The next generation of AI hardware is being built here in Britain.
So yes, this a competitive market. But we are a competitive nation.
And winning this race is what our new hardware plan is all about.
The plan brings together £1.1 billion of government support for companies in four key areas.
First: invention and early-stage chip development.
That is why our new £120m AI Hardware Innovation Programme, delivered by UKRI, will back teams at every stage – helping them move from initial concept to a full, validated prototype, and then on to contracts.
This includes an additional £20m for our Scaling Inference Lab, near Cambridge, run by ARIA and Common AI, so companies can test new chip designs in a real‑world setting. That’s £70m in total.
Just yesterday, Oriole – a brilliant British AI company – announced it is working with the lab to deploy pioneering photonics technology to supercharge the speed of AI data centres, together with one of the largest chip companies in the world – AMD.
A fantastic project. And proof of why this matters.
Second, we are investing £80m in the skills the semiconductor industry needs including more funding for PhD-level studies and bursaries for students in fields like electronic engineering and materials science.
We’re funding 300 this year, rising to 400 next year and 500 the year after, to give our top companies the talent pipeline they need.
Third, our new plan on procurement.
We will build a £750m mixed chip supercomputer.
Over half of this funding will be earmarked for inference chips.
£150m in an expanded Advanced Market Commitment to give start-ups the confidence they will have a buyer, with the government acting as a “first customer”.
A further £250 million will buy additional novel inference chips once the most successful versions have reached the market.
A total of £400m for the chip champions of tomorrow: a fantastic opportunity for all the brilliant AI hardware companies right here in the UK.
And last, but by no means least, I’m absolutely delighted that one of the best AI hardware investors in the world – Playground Global – is launching a new fund that will invest in British AI hardware companies.
And that the British Business Bank is contributing £150m – the biggest commitment it has ever made.
The team at Playground are setting up a new office here in the UK – their first outside the US.
Pat Gelsinger – one of their partners, the former CEO of Intel, and author of the US government’s CHIPS ACT – knows a thing or two about hardware investing … and his backing is further testament to the incredible talent and potential in the UK.
This is what we mean by winning for Britain on AI.
Capitalising on our strengths. Backing the best of Britain.
Combining the talent, innovation and ambition in this room with the power of an active, more muscular state.
I want to finish by saying this.
Back in the 70s, when Britain’s old industrial base was crumbling, the Callaghan government invested £50m in a high risk semi conductor start-up, Inmos.
Headquartered in Bristol, and manufactured in Newport, South Wales.
That bold move sparked not just a company but an industry, and it has led to many of our strengths today. To Graphcore and Isambard in Bristol, to Wales’s amazing semiconductor cluster.
And lest we forget, one team of Inmos alumni went on to help build what is now Britain’s most valuable company … ARM.
So for the all the doubters, doom-mongers and naysayers out there … let me say this loud and clear.
Labour governments have done this before and we will do it again.
We will seize the opportunities and tackle the challenges AI inevitably brings.
By shaping the future, not retreating from it.
And by securing the benefits of AI for all, not just a powerful few.
This is the story of national success we can and will write together.
Building a modern Britain for a modern age.
And a future that works for all.
Thank you.
