‘The United Kingdom has the talent, research excellence and ambition to help lead the next era of AI’: AMD chief exec Lisa Su touts UK’s AI potential as firm eyes £2bn investment

AMD has announced plans to invest £2 billion in the UK as the chip maker aims to accelerate AI innovation and research, and expand access to compute resources.

The five-year plan, announced at London Tech Week, will see the firm form new strategic partnerships with Imperial College London and Oriole Networks, along with support for the University of Cambridge's Zenith AI supercomputer and Sunrise fusion AI system.

“This investment is a major vote of confidence in Britain’s place as a global AI superpower. We’ve got the talent, the world-class universities and the ambition to lead, and partnerships like this help turn that potential into real progress,” said chancellor Rachel Reeves.

"It will drive more cutting-edge research here in the UK, open up opportunities for people to build the skills they need for the jobs of the future, and speed up breakthroughs that can improve people’s lives and grow our economy.”

The collaboration with Imperial College London is aimed at advancing computational science and supporting research that relies on large-scale computing resources, including healthcare innovation and climate modeling.

The two also plan to explore opportunities to optimize AI models, scientific workflows and data-intensive applications on AMD compute platforms and AMD ROCm open software.

“The United Kingdom has the talent, research excellence and ambition to help lead the next era of AI,” said AMD chief executive Lisa Su.

“AMD is proud to deepen our commitment to the UK and work with partners across government, academia and industry to expand access to the compute infrastructure needed to advance sovereign AI, accelerate discovery and drive long-term economic growth.”

AMD pens Oriole Networks deal

AMD has also announced a collaboration with Oriole Networks in support of the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) Scaling Inference Lab.

This is a national initiative designed to address critical AI infrastructure bottlenecks and support what's expected to be the world's first large-scale AI system powered by a pure photonic network.

AMD and Dell Technologies, meanwhile, are working with the University of Cambridge on expanding national AI infrastructure. This includes plans to develop the new Zenith AI supercomputer and the Sunrise fusion AI system developed in collaboration with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

Zenith is a new UK AI-for-science platform, funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), while Sunrise is a second AI supercomputer being built now, funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), owned by UKAEA, and operated by the University of Cambridge.

Together, they will support a broad range of AI-for-science applications including healthcare research, climate modelling, materials science, engineering simulation, fusion research, and scientific AI model development.

The AMD investment comes alongside the launch of a new £1.1 billion government plan to boost the UK's chip industry and attract more AI funding.

“This investment reflects the strength of Britain’s talent, research and ambition in AI - but also the infrastructure we are putting in place to match it,” said technology secretary Liz Kendall.

"With world-class chip designers, leading universities, and partners such as AMD choosing to invest here, we are building the compute capability needed to power innovation, drive growth, create jobs, and ensure the most advanced AI technologies are developed in the UK."

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