UK launches sovereign AI fund

Britain has launched a £500 million Sovereign AI fund to invest directly in domestic artificial intelligence startups and keep more of the sector at home. (gov.uk) The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology announced the program on April 16, 2026 and said it will operate like a state-backed venture capital unit inside government. PublicTechnology reported the fund was first trailed in the UK’s summer 2025 Spending Review. (gov.uk) (publictechnology.net) Ministers said the unit will offer more than cash: visas for hires, access to supercomputers, research and development support, and help selling technology to government. Wired reported the package is aimed at startups working on model development, AI agents and drug discovery. (gov.uk) (wired.com) The term “sovereign AI” refers to a country trying to control more of the computing power, companies and talent behind artificial intelligence instead of relying on foreign platforms. The UK government’s January 2025 AI Opportunities Action Plan said Britain risked falling behind the United States and China without stronger domestic capacity. (gov.uk) (wired.com) That push has been building for more than a year. In a January 29, 2026 progress update, the government said it had designated five AI Growth Zones, launched the Isambard-AI supercomputer in Bristol, and committed £2 billion to expand UK compute capacity twentyfold by 2030. (gov.uk) The first equity investment from the new fund is going to Callosum, an AI infrastructure startup. Six other startups will get access to the UK’s AI Research Resource supercomputing capacity instead of direct equity funding, according to the government. (gov.uk) A Sovereign AI post said those first compute allocations amount to more than 3 million graphics processing unit hours, which it valued at about £14 million. PublicTechnology said the first seven recipients include firms working on “generative internet” and “AI biology.” (sovereignai.gov.uk) (publictechnology.net) The unit is chaired by James Wise, a partner at Balderton Capital, and Wired reported Joséphine Kant is joining from Dogwood Ventures and Y Combinator. PublicTechnology said the unit sits within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. (wired.com) (publictechnology.net) Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, said at the launch that Britain must be “an AI maker, not just an AI taker,” according to the government’s published speech. The fund now gives that slogan a formal budget, a team and its first portfolio companies. (gov.uk)