Microsoft, Nvidia other tech giants plan over $40 billion of new AI investments in UK (www.cnbc.com)

Microsoft said it will invest $30 billion in the U.K. between 2025 and 2028 to build AI infrastructure and expand operations — allocating $15 billion to capital expenditures and $15 billion to ongoing U.K. activities. The centerpiece is a partnership with British cloud firm Nscale to deploy what Microsoft calls the U.K.'s "largest supercomputer," powered by more than 23,000 advanced GPUs. The program aims to provide large-scale compute for model training, inference and cloud services hosted onshore, signaling major new GPU capacity for European AI developers. The move is significant politically and technically: it underscores the U.K.’s push to be an AI hub amid an expected U.K.–U.S. agreement on cooperation in AI, quantum and nuclear technologies signed during President Trump’s visit. Microsoft president Brad Smith framed the commitment as a response to improved regulatory clarity and demand, a shift since earlier tensions over the Activision-Blizzard acquisition. For the AI/ML community, the investment means increased access to high-density GPU clusters, potential for lower-latency, sovereign cloud offerings, and a stronger ecosystem for startups and research — while also heightening strategic competition over critical compute infrastructure between major economies.