Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive of US chipmaking giant Nvidia, has declared that “the UK is going to be an AI superpower” as he confirmed a £500m investment into a British tech firm.
Speaking ahead of his attendance at Wednesday night’s state banquet with King Charles and Donald Trump, Huang announced an equity stake in NScale, a UK-based cloud computing company, predicting the business could generate as much as £50bn in revenue over the next six years.
“We’re here to announce that the UK is going to be an AI superpower,” Huang told reporters in London, pointing to the strength of the country’s universities and homegrown innovators such as DeepMind and autonomous vehicle startup Wayve. “You just don’t appreciate it. Your universities. Come on. You’re too humble,” he added.
The announcement comes as China prepares to ban its leading AI firms from purchasing Nvidia chips, escalating the global race for AI dominance. Huang admitted he was “disappointed” by the reports, stressing: “It is safer for the world that China and the United States collaborate in AI, and Chinese researchers collaborate in AI, than to isolate.”
As part of Nvidia’s wider commitment, the company will supply the UK with 120,000 advanced graphics processing units (GPUs), representing an investment of around £11bn. Around 70% of the funding will go toward computing and networking—including the chips themselves—while the remaining 30% will cover land, power, and datacentre infrastructure.
This upgrade, Huang said, would provide the UK with computing power “approximately 100 times the performance of the fastest supercomputer in the UK right now, the Isambard AI supercomputer in Bristol.”
Huang also weighed in on the growing debate over AI and copyright, acknowledging concerns raised by artists whose work has been used to train AI models without consent. “Artists should have the ability to monetise their creation … we have to find ways for them to continue to do so,” he said.
His comments follow criticism from high-profile figures including Elton John and Mick Jagger, who accused Labour of failing to defend artists’ rights after attempts to force AI companies to disclose copyrighted training material were blocked.
