The UK’s AI future depends on more than compute

There is a growing disconnect between Britain’s AI ambitions and the reality of how organisations are deploying AI.

With the £500m Sovereign AI Fund launched in April 2026 and a further £2bn to upgrade AI and quantum capabilities, the UK is positioning itself as a global AI leader.

Yet many companies are building AI services on infrastructure beyond UK control. An estimated £8bn worth of UK government contracts sit with US big tech.

For MPs, dependency on internationally-owned AI and cloud infrastructure poses a direct threat to democracy.

Such is the perceived threat that MPs urged the Government to “to take action to ensure the resilience of UK digital systems in the event of threats of or actual interference by a foreign government.”…