UK government will buy tech to boost AI sector in $130M growth push (arstechnica.com)

The UK government announced a commitment to become a “first customer” for British AI hardware, pledging an advance-purchase fund of £100 million ($130 million) to buy AI inference chips from domestic startups that meet set performance standards. Science Secretary Liz Kendall framed the move as a way to de-risk early-stage firms and speed commercial adoption across sectors such as life sciences and financial services, using a model similar to the UK’s advance purchase of COVID vaccines. The minister acknowledged the fund is small compared with US and Chinese spending but said it signals targeted government leadership where the UK can be “world-leading.” Technically the program focuses on inference chips—specialized processors used to run trained models in production environments (edge devices and datacenters)—and will require suppliers to hit performance benchmarks before purchases. The government hasn’t detailed the “advance payment mechanism,” but the policy’s implications are clear: it can accelerate chip commercialization, strengthen domestic supply chains, and attract follow-on private investment by reducing market risk. Still, the scale is modest relative to global investment gaps (UK AI market ~£72 billion/$94 billion; 2024 private AI investment: US $109.1B vs UK $4.5B), so the initiative is best seen as catalytic industrial policy rather than a full catch-up strategy.