Microsoft said Tuesday that it will invest $30 billion on artificial-intelligence infrastructure and operations across the United Kingdom from 2025 to 2028, a record spend of which $15 billion will go to capital expenditure and developing the UK’s largest supercomputer alongside British firm Nscale. The device will use more than 23,000 Nvidia GPUs, the company said in a blog post by President Brad Smith.
The announcement comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK by host King Charles, a backdrop Microsoft established as the dawn of a new era for the U.S.–UK technology relationship. The company described that the investment is to meet customer demand and reinforce transatlantic collaboration under AI action plans signed by Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Starmer welcomed the move, describing it as “a confident expression of trust in UK leadership in AI and leading-edge technology” and said it would boost digital infrastructure, support thousands of high-skilled jobs and keep Britain “at the forefront of global innovation.” His statement was issued alongside Microsoft’s announcement.
The other half, worth $30 billion, will go towards expanding cloud and AI capacity, such as data centers to serve major customers such as Barclays, the NHS, the London Stock Exchange Group, the Premier League, Vodafone, the Met Office, Unilever and Wayve, Microsoft said. The company cited accelerating adoption of its tools: Vodafone has rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 68,000 employees after productivity gains through a pilot, Barclays will roll out Copilot to 100,000 staff, and LSEG engineers use GitHub Copilot and Windows 365 to speed up secure app development. The rest of the funding will help finance Microsoft’s current UK operations, including a workforce of around 6,000 workers who are engaged in research, AI model creation, product and game development, data-center operations and customer support. Microsoft said it has already trained more than one million people in AI skills and named Cambridge and London research centers as part of its pledge to “responsible innovation.”.
Microsoft tied the project’s size to UK policy, saying the investment is enabled by government action to speed planning, raise electricity capacity and provide a stable regulatory environment. “In order for AI to truly realize its potential, businesses need clarity and predictability,” the company said, arguing that trust and responsible deployment are key to long-term investment.
The pledge comes in the midst of a broader week of policy and tech reveals surrounding Trump’s visit and follows months of UK overtures towards AI investment and pro-innovation regulation. Independent media also framed the package as part of a wider transatlantic technology effort.
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