The widely-reported landmark Technology Prosperity Deal signed between the UK and the US throughout Donald Trump’s state go to has been billed by ministers as the beginning of a “next Golden Age of Innovation”.
However, former Meta government and ex-deputy Prime Minister, Sir Nick Clegg, has dismissed the mammoth investments as “sloppy seconds from Silicon Valley”.
The settlement commits the 2 nations to deeper collaboration throughout strategic science and know-how fields together with AI, civil nuclear, quantum applied sciences and frontier innovation.
Plans embrace joint AI analysis between main science businesses in each international locations, shared compute infrastructure, new knowledge units and partnerships in biotechnology and healthcare.
NASA and the UK Space Agency are set to work collectively on an ‘AI for Space’ initiative, whereas nuclear cooperation will goal superior reactors and fuels with the goal of eliminating reliance on Russian provide by 2028.
Quantum collaboration will contain benchmarking initiatives, a joint code problem and alternate programme.
The deal additionally units out commitments round analysis safety, 6G telecommunications, cyber resilience and the mobilisation of personal capital for crucial applied sciences.
The authorities has introduced the deal alongside headline bulletins from US tech giants, together with Nvidia, OpenAI and Microsoft.
Microsoft’s dedication alone has been valued at $30 billion (£22bn), with ministers claiming the funding proves Britain’s world attraction as a vacation spot for innovation.
Clegg, nevertheless, questioned whether or not the UK was really benefiting.
Speaking on the Royal Television Society convention in Cambridge, he described the connection as “all one-way traffic”, arguing that the bulletins largely mirrored infrastructure tasks already in movement by US corporations, merely accelerated to coincide with the state go to.
“We’re a kind of vassal state technologically, we really are,” he warned.
“The moment our companies, our tech companies, start developing any scale or ambition, they have to go to California, because we don’t have the growth capital here.”
He revealed that former US ambassador Peter Mandelson had sought his recommendation on the sector forward of Trump’s go to and mentioned he had urged warning over the partnerships.
He continued: “In a sense, this US-UK tech deal is just another version of the United Kingdom holding on to Uncle Sam’s coat-tails … which is basically just taking sloppy seconds from Silicon Valley.”