Building the foundations of the UK’s intelligence economy
In the run-up to his keynote speech at London Tech Week on 8 June 2026, Darren Hardman, CEO Microsoft UK & Ireland, reflects on the importance of digital infrastructure to the success of the UK’s AI economy.
Great Britain led the Industrial Revolution in part because we invented new technologies. But we benefited from long term prosperity because we invested in the infrastructure – the canals, railways, factories, ports and power systems – that enabled those technologies to scale.
And that industrial infrastructure transformed this country from a nation of invention into a global exporter of products, services and industrial capability.
While artificial intelligence is often discussed as a software revolution, its success is largely dependent on the physical: that’s compute capacity, cloud platforms, connectivity, and energy provision.
In some ways, datacentres and supercomputers are like the factories of the AI economy.
Record investment
This is why Microsoft is investing $30 billion (£23 billion) in the UK – the largest investment the company has ever made in the country – which includes $15 billion (£11.5 billion) of capital spend on cloud and AI infrastructure, and a further $15 billion on operating expenditure, which includes skilling.
Consequently, we are nearing completion on new state-of-the-art datacentres in Acton, West London, and in Newport, South Wales.
Our investment will also deliver the UK’s largest AI supercomputer at Loughton, Essex -powered by more than 23,000 NVIDIA GPUs – in partnership with UK-based Nscale.
And just as infrastructure once enabled us to export steel, textiles and machinery to the world, AI infrastructure can now help the UK build entirely new forms of economic value – from AI-powered services and scientific discovery, to engineering intelligence and next-generation digital products.
The UK already possesses many of the ingredients needed to lead. We have world-class universities, extraordinary research capability, globally respected institutions, and one of the most dynamic AI ecosystems anywhere in Europe.
Home-grown AI exports
But the global economy is being reshaped by AI at extraordinary speed. The countries that succeed will be the ones that create, scale and export their own AI-enabled products, services and intellectual property to the rest of the world.
We are already beginning to see what the UK as an exporter of invention might look like: PhysicsX, the fast-growing UK tech firm, is using AI to transform engineering itself -compressing complex design and simulation processes that once took months into seconds.
Wayve, the London-based autonomous driving company, is using AI supercomputing infrastructure to build and scale next-generation self-driving systems from the UK – securing $1.5 billion (£1.1bn) in funding as it moves toward large-scale commercial deployment.
And global engineering consultancy Arup is using AI and cloud platforms to transform how complex infrastructure and engineering projects are designed and delivered across more than 130 countries.
Its AI-powered Phoenix knowledge platform and SmartBid proposal engine are helping accelerate productivity, improve engineering quality, and support thousands of more sustainable design projects worldwide.
These examples demonstrate that our AI infrastructure is not simply supporting the technology sector but is also the foundation for the next stage of UK growth.
The need for speed
But we must move fast to build and deploy the infrastructure, capability and regulatory environment that will enable ‘UK Plc’ to compete globally.
We are in a race for AI diffusion with every other country in the world. AI breakthroughs and AI-powered services scale internationally almost instantly. Competitive advantage accrues to those countries able to deploy infrastructure, skills and adoption fastest.
Because the global AI race will not pause while countries debate whether to act. Moving slowly, or worse, standing still, means falling behind.
Building the future
This investment is about more than just datacentres – it’s about helping build the long-term foundations of the UK’s AI economy.
Infrastructure at this scale does more than provide compute power. It attracts talent, strengthens research capability, supports start-ups and scale-ups, and drives regional economic activity.
We see that today with the growing UK presence of Microsoft AI’s Superintelligence team alongside the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic and existing technology leaders.
Strategic AI infrastructure investment gives organisations across the UK access to the platforms they need to innovate and compete globally. It helps create new clusters of innovation, jobs and capability across regions that have historically been underserved by technology investment.
And the real economic prize comes when UK businesses move from isolated AI experimentation to large-scale adoption across their operations. That means redesigning workflows, augmenting decision-making, building AI-ready workforces, and embedding AI into the core of how organisations operate.
We have a genuine opportunity to lead this race. Not simply to adopt technology developed elsewhere – but to build, scale and export the next generation of AI-powered products, services and expertise to the world.
Because in this revolution, as in the last, investment in infrastructure, new technology and skilling will determine success.
If we move with ambition and urgency, the UK can help define the next great era of global innovation.