London Tech Week saw Britain’s technology secretary, Liz Kendall, lay out a bold new approach to the nation’s faltering semiconductor sector. The government will step in as a customer, offering to buy AI chips directly from UK‑based companies in what officials are calling "strategic purchases." The move is designed to stem the tide of high‑profile exits – SoftBank’s 2024 acquisition of Graphcore, Qualcomm’s $2.4 billion purchase of Alphawave IP, and Arm’s 2023 decision to list in New York – that have left policymakers questioning whether the UK can sustain a homegrown chip ecosystem.
Kendall framed the plan as a cornerstone of a £37 billion ambition to command 5% of the global AI‑chip market. Achieving that share would translate into tens of thousands of jobs and a robust export profile. To back the strategy, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has already earmarked £100 million through the Advanced Research and Invention Agency’s scaling compute programme. Half of that sum funds a new scaling inference lab where British startups can test hardware at scale.
Beyond the cash injection, the government will wield its purchasing power to guarantee demand. Six UK firms have already secured access to publicly funded supercomputers to refine their AI models, and the state retains a right of first refusal on any future capital raises. Fractile, a British inference‑chip startup that recently closed a $220 million round and is reportedly in talks with Anthropic, is among the companies poised to benefit.
The policy also responds to growing unease about foreign reliance in public‑sector procurement. A recent parliamentary report warned against over‑dependence on U.S. firms such as Palantir, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. Earlier this year, HM Revenue & Customs awarded a £175 million AI contract to Quantexa, a London‑based firm, signaling a preference for domestic suppliers.
Kendall underscored the national‑security angle, noting that AI hardware is too critical to be left entirely to external actors, especially in defence, financial services and health‑care. In a Bloomberg speech back in January, she announced a £1 billion boost to AI research compute capacity, aiming to increase it twenty‑fold.
Critics ask whether buying chips alone can halt the next Graphcore‑style sale. Britain boasts world‑class engineering talent and a vibrant research base, but has historically lacked the domestic demand and patient capital to keep firms scaling at home. The new purchasing framework seeks to fill that gap, turning the government from regulator to anchor customer.
Whether the strategy will succeed remains to be seen, but officials are confident that guaranteed orders and a pipeline of public funding will give British chipmakers the breathing room they need to grow, rather than looking overseas for a quick exit.
Cet article a été rédigé avec l'assistance de l'IA.
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