{"id":24601,"date":"2026-04-29T06:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/24601\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T06:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:39:09","slug":"uk-seeks-ai-sovereignty-while-us-tech-companies-expand-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/24601\/","title":{"rendered":"UK seeks AI sovereignty while US tech companies expand in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rapid expansion into London by US<\/a> tech companies has not stopped a UK<\/a> government push to \u201creduce over-dependency\u201d by encouraging Britain’s domestic industry to invest and grow at home.<\/p>\n

With Google’s<\/a> \u201clandscraper\u201d London<\/a> headquarters set to open in the summer at the Knowledge Hub district of King’s Cross, all eyes are on Jeff Bezos<\/a>\u2019s AI<\/a> venture Project Prometheus, which is reported to be discussing its own beachhead.<\/p>\n

This follows announcements from Anthropic<\/a> that it will open offices in the area for 800 employees, and from OpenAI that it would be doubling its staff in the capital from 200 people.<\/p>\n

They’ve got access to the compute<\/p>\n

Feryal Clarke,
Labour MP<\/p>\n

But as the UK engages in a form of AI diplomacy to attract these companies, its digital regulations have sparked conflict with the US administration of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The UK is sitting between the US\u2019s libertarian inclination and the EU\u2019s clearly defined regulation set out in its 2024 AI Act, experts told The National. While some described this as a \u201csweet spot\u201d, others viewed it as indecision that hampers growth.<\/p>\n

AI Sovereignty<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s latest response to the dilemma on Tuesday was that it would grow the UK\u2019s own tech industry and be less dependent on the software and infrastructure available in the US by turning towards other countries.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall called for excessive reliance on overseas tech companies to be avoided. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor Britain, AI sovereignty is about reducing over-dependencies and increasing resilience in key national strategic priorities \u2026 so we secure greater control and greater leverage over the issues that matter most,\u201d she told the London defence think tank Royal United Services Institute.<\/p>\n

The UK would start backing \u201cmore British AI companies\u201d and collaborating with \u201cso-called middle powers\u201d on the regulation of AI. She insisted that the move was not \u201cisolationism\u201d or an \u201cattempt to do it alone\u201d.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes after months of frustrated attempts to respond to public concerns about how digital services \u2013 including AI and social media platforms \u2013 will be regulated. <\/p>\n

US Vice President JD Vance told Prime Minister Keir Starmer last year that the UK’s attempts to police incitements to violence on social media was a \u201cbackslide\u201d on freedom of speech that also affected US companies. OpenAI shelved plans to build a data centre in the UK this month because of uncertainty over copyright laws and high energy costs.<\/p>\n

Children’s safety on social media has played a key role in shaping public scepticism and the demand for more regulation. This month, Mr Starmer and Ms Kendall summoned senior executives of American social media companies, warning them to \u201ctake responsibility\u201d for harmful content that children could see on their platforms. Britain is also considering social media restrictions for under-16s, after unsuccessful attempts to pass a ban.<\/p>\n

This demand for tighter regulation has been compounded by Anthropic’s soft launch of Mythos, which finds security flaws in software, and which the company has considered too powerful for public release.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday’s speech was a moment for the UK to go on record to say: the geopolitical landscape as we know it has changed, and we as a government now have to be much more pragmatic rather than ideological in terms of how we seek those technology partnerships,\u201d said James Sullivan, director of Rusi’s Cyber and Tech programme.<\/p>\n

Diminished US<\/p>\n

A strong alliance with the US and its tech industry is needed \u2013 not just for its computing capacity and infrastructure, but also to counter security threats from hostile states including Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI does not know boundaries, nor does compute really. Where you have safety around data, you need to be confident in that,\u201d said Saqib Bhatti, a former Conservative technology minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should work together rather than trying to reduce dependencies,\u201d he told The National.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a very strong, principles-based approach, and I think we have to be confident in those principles. I understand the US position on that but I’m very confident, especially around online safety, that we’ve taken the right approach.”<\/p>\n

But Mr Sullivan believes the UK has the option to position itself amid three growing AI blocs \u2013 the US, China and Europe. \u201cThe US cannot be the only partnership it has. There’s a strong push towards embracing the partnership with those European countries whilst following your own pathway to regulation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

China is the \u201celephant in the room\u201d owing to its enormous investments in AI technology and the surveillance and security risks it poses to the UK. <\/p>\n

The UK could also be the global \u201cstandard setter\u201d for AI ethics and regulation, Mr Sullivan said. Anthropic announced its expansion to the UK weeks after it was designated as a \u201csupply chain risk\u201d by the Pentagon for refusing to license its products for domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.<\/p>\n

Former AI minister Feryal Clarke told The National an AI diplomacy is often at work behind the scenes, with the government regularly speaking to US companies to help them expand in the UK. <\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s existing knowledge and skills base is the key draw for these companies, Ms Clarke said. \u201cThe UK has an amazing talent pool. We have some of the best minds in AI. It isn\u2019t new to the UK. Our universities, our institutions have been working in this area for decades,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The UK had also made investments in computing infrastructure \u201cacross the country\u201d. \u201cWe\u2019ve invested huge amounts into infrastructure to make sure that if companies wanted to move here, they’ve got access to the compute,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The government was also working on new visa regimes for US tech companies to bring overseas employees over, Ms Clarke added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m sure if [the companies] were interested, the government will be talking to them, trying to work with them to make them more welcome in this country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

UK start-ups <\/p>\n

AI minister Kanishka Narayan praised an investment with industry veteran David Silver in Ineffable Intelligence to create a $5.1 billion British challenger this week. <\/p>\n

The calls to grow the UK\u2019s own industry have been echoed in the opposition, but politicians say that British start-ups face hurdles imposed by the government. \u201cWe need to be an innovation and technology super power and not a vassal state,\u201d said Ben Spencer, shadow technology secretary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key message I get from [UK companies] all the time is that the government doesn\u2019t give us [recognition]. Their focus is on the big three,\u201d he told a tech conference hosted by Bright Blue and the Fabian Society on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are rendering ourselves uncompetitive because we are not focusing on home-grown industry and vulnerable to technology from foreign powers.”<\/p>\n

Mr Spencer urged the government to reverse employment tax increases and other regulations on employers to allow smaller tech companies to grow. \u201cThe policies of this government are making it more difficult to recruit people than machines.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom EU regulations to employment tax rises \u2026 the barriers are pushing people more and more to use AI and to recruit less people.”<\/p>\n

Companies were quietly leaving the UK due to the challenges they faced from regulators, according to Ben Greenstone, a tech policy adviser and fellow at the centre-right think tank Onward. <\/p>\n

He told of a space start-up that had to speak to 11 regulators to be launched. \u201cThat\u2019s fine if you\u2019re a very large technology business. It\u2019s not if you\u2019re a small business that has to spend a very large amount of capital just to do anything at all,\u201d Mr Greenstone said at an event by Onward on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He said there was a \u201ctotal lack of any clarity for what the plan is or what we’re shooting at\u201d, leaving companies with a \u201clack of faith, I think, that the government is going to make any decisions outside of knee-jerk decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rapid expansion into London by US tech companies has not stopped a UK government push to \u201creduce…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[27,330,3040,3041],"class_list":{"0":"post-24601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-london","9":"tag-standard","10":"tag-story","11":"tag-uk-bureau"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116486626492260893","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}