President Trump’s state visit appears to have opened the floodgates for technology investment in Britain, with Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD), Google, OpenAI and Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM, ETR:FOO) together announcing more than $40 billion in artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure projects.
Microsoft led the wave with a $30 billion commitment by 2028 to expand its UK operations.
The plan includes building the country’s largest supercomputer, equipped with more than 23,000 advanced processors in partnership with British cloud group Nscale. The funding is split between $15.5 billion for capital expansion and $15.1 billion for operations.
Nvidia followed with a $15 billion investment, its biggest in Europe, to deploy 120,000 of its new Blackwell processors across the UK. Google announced a $6.8 billion programme that includes a major new data centre north of London, which it says could support more than 8,000 jobs annually in UK businesses.
OpenAI unveiled “Stargate UK,” a venture with SoftBank and Oracle that will bring up to 31,000 processors online in Newcastle over time.
Salesforce increased its UK investment pledge to $6 billion, while CoreWeave, a US data centre specialist, added another $1.9 billion, taking its total commitment in Britain to $3.2 billion.
Microsoft president Brad Smith acknowledged his stance on Britain had shifted since regulators initially opposed its Activision-Blizzard takeover in 2023.
“Just a few years ago, this kind of investment would have been inconceivable,” he said, crediting the government’s recent steps to create a more supportive climate for growth.