• AI Minister to call for greater investment in British technology in speech to Britain’s AI community.
• UK chip startup Fractile delivers vote of confidence in Britain with ambitious plans to scale up in this country, boosting economic growth.
• £100 million unveiled to help build the company’s new Bristol site and fund the next generation of AI hardware – supporting the government’s plan to deliver national renewal.
The UK’s AI Minister Kanishka Narayan has announced that British chip startup Fractile will invest £100 million in its UK operations, in a speech urging more of the nation’s tech entrepreneurs to take bold risks, and vowing that Government will back the builders and the innovators.
Speaking in central London, he will say greater British technology ownership is needed for the UK to command deeper influence shaping a positive future for breakthrough tech like AI – as he challenges founders, investors and industry leaders to back home-grown innovation.
The minister will emphasise that future growth cannot be built for elites alone, and how unlike previous waves of frontier technology, AI’s potential is broad and distributed – with Britain’s greatest strength coming from opportunity being spread across regions and communities.
It comes as UK chip startup Fractile confirms a £100 million investment in its UK headquarters over the next three years. The company will expand its London and Bristol sites, create a new UK industrial hardware engineering facility, and grow its UK-based team to develop and optimise next-generation systems. This marks a significant boost to the UK’s AI hardware ecosystem.
Engineers at the new Bristol facility will build Fractile’s leading edge chips into next-generation AI systems that will make new kinds of AI tasks possible. It will also host a lab where experts can test new software designed for future compute technology — capable of running the most powerful AI models much faster than today’s hardware.
Fractile’s decision to scale in Britain reflects growing confidence in a tech ecosystem now valued at over £1 trillion, the largest in Europe, and supported by record levels of investment. Recent analysis shows the UK ranks third globally for VC funding and continues to attract the world’s most innovative companies and talent.
His address follows a landmark week of announcements to mark one year of the AI Opportunities Action Plan – which is expected to create up to 15,000 jobs and attract over £28 billion in private investment for local communities.
AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said:
“I am setting Britain’s AI leaders a challenge – bang the drum for start-ups, spread the opportunities to every corner of our country, and embrace risk.
“This is how we leverage AI to serve hard-working people, our economy, and British values.
“By investing in British tech innovation, just as Fractile is doing today, we can reinforce our leadership in AI and boost our influence on the global stage.”
Today’s announcement signals the UK’s determination not just to host the future of AI, but to build it. With major investment in compute, a new sovereign AI unit, and a commitment to world class skills and open source development, the government is laying the foundations for British innovation to thrive at speed and scale.
