By Joe Hadden

Copyright yahoo

Britain does not have the same culture of “entrepreneurial drive” as the US, Business Secretary Peter Kyle has said.

Mr Kyle told investors that students in the UK lack the same “drive” and “vigour” of those in the States during an event in central London hosted by US AI giant Nvidia on Thursday.

He was there to mark the firm’s £2 billion investment in the UK’s AI sector which was announced earlier in the day.

Mr Kyle spoke on stage alongside Nvidia founder Jensen Huang and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick.

He said: “I went to Stanford (University) a couple of years back and spoke to some undergraduates there.

“I asked them why they chose to go to university.

“Every single student in that group of 10 or 12 said because they want to set a company up – there wasn’t one that said they didn’t.

“In Britain, if you went to a group of undergraduates, how big would that group have to be before you found someone that said their choice of going to university, and that choice of going to that specific university, was because they wanted to become a founder?

“The entrepreneurialism simply isn’t there – the drive, the vigour.”

Mr Lutnick contrasted cultural attitudes to success, adding: “In America we celebrate the entrepreneur, we celebrate success.

“Europe has historically looked down on that – your participation in Europe all those years sort of convinced you to look down on it.

“To build and to win and to create a trillion-dollar company you need to celebrate the building of success.

“You need to have a cultural change that says we want you to win – in America we have it in our soul.

“One of the reasons for the visit is for you to look at Donald Trump and get from him his love for Britain, and his advice would be follow the lead of America… your greatest friend.”

Mr Lutnick also warned that nations without the capacity to build advanced technology, such as drones, risk becoming “vassal states” dependent on others for their defence.

But he insisted Americans would “take care” of the UK because of their relationship.

He said: “There’s an analysis that says if you can’t make drones you will be a vassal state to those who can.

“You can’t have drones come into your country and expect to defend yourself unless you have the capacity to defend yourself.

“One of the needs is to build sufficiently at home so we have the capacity to care for ourselves and the rest of the world.

“We will take care of ourselves and, because of our special relationship, we will take care of the United Kingdom because of those things.”