London Tech Week 2025, held at Olympia London from June 10 to 12, is likely to be remembered as a watershed moment for the UK’s digital future.
While the UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle was initially expected to lead government representation at the event, but the Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a surprise appearance, delivering a keynote speech that set out the government’s vision for AI and digital skills. He was joined on stage by Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, underscoring the importance of global partnerships in the UK’s tech strategy.
During the event, the UK government announced a new national mission to train 7.5 million British workers in essential AI skills by 2030. The initiative is being developed in collaboration with major technology companies, including Nvidia, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, BT, and Salesforce. The effort will be supported by:
- £1 billion of planned investment in AI infrastructure, including computing capacity and regional AI hubs.
- A new £187 million “TechFirst” programme, designed to integrate digital and AI learning into the UK’s education system and community outreach.
It’s a bold bet on the UK’s future as a creator and exporter of AI, not just a consumer. The Prime Minister’s vision – “AI maker, not AI taker” – is central to the UK’s decade-long national strategy, as outlined in the National AI Strategy and the recent AI Opportunities Action Plan. The goal is to ensure that Britain not only harnesses AI for economic growth and public service transformation but also shapes the global governance and application of these technologies.
From AI taker to AI maker
At the heart of the Prime Minister’s announcement lies a clear message: the UK must be an “AI maker, not an AI taker.” This vision has resonated deeply with industry leaders and investors, who see it as a necessary pivot for the country’s digital future.
Ifeoluwa Ogunbufunmi, Founder & Chief Strategist at SWIF, who was also a speaker at the Founder’s stage, captures the optimism when speaking to TFN. She says, “I’m a huge advocate for big and bold moves, backed by clear execution. The UK’s ambition to be an ‘AI maker, not an AI taker’ is a bold and necessary shift, and Nvidia’s involvement further strengthens the country’s potential to lead in AI innovation. Nvidia’s deep capabilities in AI hardware and software infrastructure and its ecosystem of developers and researchers position it as a strategic enabler of this transformation.”
The new Nvidia AI Technology Centre will be a linchpin of this effort, serving as a collaborative hub for startups, academia, and industry. Ogunbufunmi envisions it as a space where “startups, academic institutions, industry partners and stakeholders can co-create leading solutions in areas like healthtech, climate tech, fintech, and cybersecurity,” and where “underserved groups, including women and ethnically diverse talent,” can thrive.
Damian Routley, COO of Founders Factory (London‑based venture studio and startup accelerator co‑founded in 2015 by serial entrepreneurs Brent Hoberman, Henry Lane Fox, and George Northcott) echoes this sentiment: “To lead in AI, the UK must become a maker, not just a taker, of core technologies. AI is fundamental infrastructure for all our essential industries across health, biotech, energy, fintech, climate resilience and beyond—so we must not outsource this. All our futures depend upon it.”
The strategy: Building infrastructure, talent, and innovation
The UK’s approach is comprehensive. The government is creating “AI growth zones” to speed up planning and energy access for data centres — the engines of modern AI — and investing in a new supercomputer to increase public compute power twentyfold by 2030. A £14 billion investment from data centre startups and global firms is set to transform the country’s digital infrastructure.
The plan also includes new industry-funded AI Masters and PhD programmes at 16 university centres, ensuring a steady pipeline of high-skilled talent. The Alan Turing Institute is leading research fellowships to retain and attract global experts, while Skills England will drive upskilling across the economy.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stated: “Our plan will make Britain the world leader. It will give the [AI] industry the foundation it needs… that means more jobs and investment in the UK, more money in people’s pockets, and transformed public services.”
The challenge: Keeping pace with AI’s breakneck speed
AI is accelerating. The UK’s plan recognises that a static curriculum won’t suffice. Ogunbufunmi emphasises: “For the initiative to be truly transformative, agility is key. AI evolves at speed, so a static curriculum will quickly become irrelevant. The partnership must embed continuous feedback loops from the startup ecosystem and enterprise users to ensure training stays relevant to real-world use cases.”
Sarah Finegan, Associate Partner at leading early-stage VC Antler, who has also featured in TechTalkswithTFN, adds: “The devil is always in the details, and we wait to see the specifics about how this new partnership will stay at the cutting edge of AI innovation as it evolves at pace. The only way they can make it work is to work as closely as possible with the companies already leading AI innovation in the UK.”
The opportunity: Building a diverse, inclusive AI talent pipeline
Diversity and inclusion are central to the government’s strategy. The TechFirst programme will bring digital skills and AI learning into classrooms and communities, targeting students of all ages and backgrounds. The aim is to create an inclusive, AI-skilled workforce that drives growth and innovation nationwide.
Finegan highlights the importance of local talent: “Initiatives like the AI Technology Centre will help develop a pipeline of local talent and support the great AI founders we already see emerging from our leading universities and unicorns. London still holds Europe’s most comprehensive AI ecosystem, combining capital, talent, global access and sectoral diversity.”
The reality: Addressing skills gaps and public concerns
Despite the optimism, challenges remain. The digital skills shortage is a major barrier to AI adoption, particularly in the public sector. Agur Jõgi, CTO at Pipedrive (Estonia-founder cloud-based sales CRM tech giant) notes: “The digital skills shortage remains one of the biggest challenges to AI adoption, particularly in the public sector… but the Prime Minister also raised the issue of the ‘social fear’ of AI. Starmer acknowledged that ‘some people out there are sceptical’ and ‘worry about AI taking their jobs,’ but argued that this debate has been revisited many times and we need to ‘push past it.'”
Jõgi also points to international examples: “Estonia’s AI Leap 2025 program grounds the education system in AI learning through partnership with tech giants, including OpenAI and Anthropic. This is a valuable blueprint—youth skills schemes set up, providing a solution to digital skills gaps, which have plagued the tech sector for years and are impacting our local fledgling AI economies, costing the UK £63 billion per year. The UK can follow solid international examples to help nurture its younger AI talent, focusing on a long-term vision of AI growth to build up Britain.”
Is the UK a global hub for AI innovation?
This initiative is a statement of intent. The UK is positioning itself as a global hub for AI innovation, with the potential to shape the future of the technology. Ogunbufunmi sums it up: “This is a landmark moment for the UK’s digital economy. But the real win will lie in execution. If delivered well, this partnership can position the UK as not just a hub of AI consumption but a powerhouse of original AI solutions, spanning large enterprises, startups, and public sector use cases.
It’s also critical that this initiative doesn’t operate in isolation. AI capability-building should be embedded into the wider innovation ecosystem, from regulatory sandboxes and procurement reform to startup support and global talent attraction.
As someone advising governments, corporates, and founders across continents, I see a strong international appetite for collaborative AI talent pipelines and scalable cross-border solutions. With the right strategic partnerships, this initiative can have enormous benefits far beyond the UK.”
This article is part of our London Tech Week coverage, with TFN serving as an official media partner.
