Rachel Reeves puts £2,500,000,000 towards AI and quantum tech in bid for growth
Rachel Reeves will put billions of pounds in funding towards AI and quantum computing as she tries to pump some energy into the British economy.
In a major speech today, the Chancellor has set out why she considers AI to be one of three key areas where the UK might be able to secure much-needed growth.
Investing heavily in the ‘defining technology of our era’ would not just lead to economic renewal, she said – it’ll transform sectors like health, energy and transport.
That is the logic behind £2.5 billion in funding Reeves is putting towards AI and quantum technologies.
Speaking to bank bosses and fellow politicians at the annual Mais Lecture, she committed the UK to adopting AI faster than any other country in the G7 – and becoming the first country in the world to roll out quantum computing at scale.
The Chancellor said: ‘We can bury our heads in the sand and leave it to other countries – whose values may differ from ours – to shape and own this technology.
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‘We can leave it to the market alone, and let the balance of risk and reward be determined by a super-wealthy few. Or we can chart our own course.’
Quantum computing is expected to be the next big technological leap after the boom in artificial intelligence – even if it’s still just emerging.
It is notoriously difficult to explain how it works without diving into the complex world of quantum mechanics, but experts suggest these machines could take seconds to complete a task that would take a regular computer hundreds of millions of years.
This is the tech that will receive the lion’s share of the new government funding, with £2 billion going towards upgrading the UK’s quantum capabilities.
An additional £13.8 million is being injected into the five ‘National Quantum Research Hubs’ at universities across the UK which use the machines to tackle problems in healthcare and national security.
According to Reeves, AI is one of the three best chances at achieving the economic growth she craves.
The UK’s GDP has not hit 1% growth in any quarter since the last general election, and in the last two quarters of 2025 it achieved a mere 0.1%.
Alongside AI, the Chancellor is also putting her fiscal faith in a closer relationship with the European Union and growth in regions across the country.
Her speech today comes a day after it was announced the UK would put £45 million of funding towards an AI supercomputer called Sunrise.
Based in Oxfordshire, this machine will be used exclusively to tackle the challenges involved in making fusion energy – a ‘virtually limitless’ source of clean energy – viable.
It’s expected the supercomputer will be up and running by June.
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