Spending Review 2025 – A Defining Commitment to High-Performance Compute

Spending Review 2025 - A Defining Commitment to High-Performance Compute

The UK Government's Spending Review 2025 represents a watershed moment for high-performance compute (HPC) in the UK. During London Tech Week the Prime Minister unveiled £1 billion of extra funding to 'scale up the country's AI compute power twenty-fold', which was also followed by a further £750 million to build the UK's new national supercomputer at the University of Edinburgh. Through this announcement, the UK Government hopes to build Britain's position as an AI research powerhouse, with access to both researchers and start-ups to deliver new waves of innovations and discoveries.

Set to be operational within two years, this next-generation system will deliver unprecedented computing power, unlocking transformative advances in artificial intelligence, life sciences, climate research, and quantum technologies.

Why This Matters for HPC

• Enabling AI innovation at scale: The exascale system will power the development and deployment of frontier AI models across high-impact sectors such as healthcare, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing.
• Accelerating world-class research: UK researchers will gain access to compute capacity that rivals global leaders, enabling faster discoveries and deeper scientific collaboration.
• Boosting UK competitiveness: This investment elevates the UK's position in the global HPC and AI landscape, supporting economic strength and digital leadership.
• Building an inclusive national ecosystem: With aligned investments in Bristol and Cambridge, the new system forms part of a wider, distributed HPC infrastructure-ensuring innovation is supported across all regions.

techUK welcomes this bold and strategic move - but it needs to be part of a consistent and holistic approach to compute

techUK has consistently advocated for HPC to be treated as critical to the UK's future. In our Compute Infrastructure and the AI Opportunities Action Plan, we called for long-term investment in scalable, accessible compute to underpin innovation and economic growth.

In the above article, and in our previous work on Future of Compute Review - an independent paper under the previous government that led to the commitment to AI Research Resource (AIRR) located across Bristol (Isambard AI) and Cambridge (Dawn) - we have called for the UK to build an exascale machine. At the time of the Future of Compute review, the government also committed to build exascale compute, which was later paused by the current government. As such, while we welcome the new announcement from government, some within the tech industry are puzzled by the drawn-out timescales to develop a plan that commits to the original exascale compute - a year on from when this was initially paused.

Alongside these announcements, we still await the commitment within the AI Opportunities Action plan to set out, within six months, a long-term plan for the UK's AI infrastructure. This proposed plan must consider emerging compute technologies, investment in software, skills, and wider high-performance computing capabilities to complement AI. You can view our asks here.

A Platform for Long-Term Growth

techUK believes this investment will act as a catalyst for innovation, economic development, and digital resilience. Crucially, it reflects a shared commitment between government and industry to not only build infrastructure, but also develop the skills, data access, and research environments essential to unlocking its full value.

We look forward to working with UK Government as they build the future of compute in the UK, backing world leading research and innovation.