Microsoft Corp., OpenAI and other American companies announced plans to spend tens of billions of dollars on technology infrastructure in the UK, part of a series of business deals that coincide with President Donald Trump’s visit to the nation this week.

The tech giants are dedicating more than £31 billion ($42.3 billion) to artificial intelligence systems, quantum computing initiatives and other tech projects, the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said in a statement on Tuesday. Joining Trump on the visit are several Silicon Valley luminaries, including Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang and Sam Altman from OpenAI, which is also bringing its Stargate program to the UK.

The announcements bolster an effort by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to strengthen ties with the US and boost technology growth. He’s pledged to fast-track planning approval for data centers and ease access to the power grid in the UK, which has some of the most expensive electricity in Europe. The UK government also said it’s opening a new AI Growth Zone, a data center facility that Starmer’s Labour Party has argued will bring jobs to the country.

“The two countries are now pairing up,” Kanishka Narayan, an undersecretary for the UK’s science department, said in a press briefing. “At the heart of it, it’s a focus not just on the history of our special relationship but on our future.”

With the Silicon Valley deals, Starmer is avoiding a tactic used by some European nations, notably France, which has promoted homegrown AI firms and signaled its independence from US technology.

OpenAI is at the center of a $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure project that Trump announced in January. The AI company has said that it will take its Stargate effort to other countries. For the British operation, OpenAI and partners such as Nscale Global Holdings Ltd. will be hosting as many as around 60,000 of Nvidia’s latest Blackwell semiconductors.

Of that, OpenAI will consider using as many as 8,000 of the chips in the first quarter of 2026 — with the potential to reach 31,000 over time. The UK Stargate project will span a number of locations, including a new AI Growth Zone in Northeast England. Narayan declined to say how much the companies would be investing in the project.

Here are some of the other announcements:

The UK joins other countries around the world in trying to build out local artificial intelligence infrastructure — what’s known as sovereign AI. Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, sees this trend as key to its future growth.

Though the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker has already seen meteoric sales increases in the past two years, it gets much of its revenue from a handful of giant data center operators. The sovereign AI push will contribute to as much as $4 trillion in AI spending by the end of the decade, Huang has said.

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Published on September 17, 2025