{"program_id":"gb","program_name":"United Kingdom: AI Opportunities Action Plan / UK Compute Roadmap / AIRR / Sovereign AI Unit / AI Hardware Plan","as_of":"2026-08-15T02:38:49.605Z","schema_version":"1.0","stages":{"announced":{"value_usd":4752000000,"is_estimated":true,"currency_of_record":null,"fx_rate_used":null,"fx_rate_source":null,"fx_rate_date":null,"primary_sources":[{"url":"https://www.gov.uk/government/news/a-decisive-shift-to-power-british-ai-new-11-billion-plan-to-back-chip-firms-boost-computing-power-and-skills-for-the-ai-revolution","description":"UK AI Hardware Plan (GBP 1.1B, gov.uk, 2026-06-08) — retrieved from the publisher's own site","authority_tier":1,"accessed_date":"2026-07-14"},{"url":"https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/july/isambard-launch.html","description":"Isambard-AI full system launch (5,448 GH200, July 17 2025)","authority_tier":1},{"url":"https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-opportunities-action-plan","description":"UK AI Opportunities Action 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commitment","authority_tier":1,"accessed_date":"2026-03-28"}]},"deployed":{"value_usd":318000000,"is_estimated":true,"currency_of_record":null,"fx_rate_used":null,"fx_rate_source":null,"fx_rate_date":null,"primary_sources":[{"url":"https://www.gov.uk/government/news/a-decisive-shift-to-power-british-ai-new-11-billion-plan-to-back-chip-firms-boost-computing-power-and-skills-for-the-ai-revolution","description":"UK AI Hardware Plan (GBP 1.1B, gov.uk, 2026-06-08) — retrieved from the publisher's own site","authority_tier":1,"accessed_date":"2026-07-14"},{"url":"https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/july/isambard-launch.html","description":"Isambard-AI full system launch (5,448 GH200, July 17 2025)","authority_tier":1},{"url":"https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-opportunities-action-plan","description":"UK AI Opportunities Action Plan (framework document, January 2025)","authority_tier":1},{"url":"https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-compute-roadmap","description":"UK Compute Roadmap (specific source for the £2B compute commitment + 420 ExaFLOPS by 2030 target, July 2025)","authority_tier":1},{"url":"https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/uk-pledges-1-billion-ai-compute-investment-nscale-plans-to-deploy-10000-nvidia-gpus/","description":"DCD: £1B AIRR + Nscale details","authority_tier":2,"accessed_date":"2026-03-28"},{"url":"https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-and-united-kingdom-build-nations-ai-infrastructure-and-ecosystem-to-fuel-innovation-economic-growth-and-jobs","description":"NVIDIA UK partnership announcement","authority_tier":1,"accessed_date":"2026-03-28"},{"url":"https://www.nscale.com/press-releases/ai-hyperscaler-nscale-to-invest-gbp-2-billion-in-the-uk-data-centre-industry","description":"Nscale £2B private commitment","authority_tier":1,"accessed_date":"2026-03-28"}],"derivation_rule":"MIN(committed_usd, disbursed_usd, utility_evidence_ceiling_usd) over non-null inputs","inputs":{"committed_usd":4752000000,"disbursed_usd":318000000,"utility_evidence_count":0,"utility_evidence_ceiling_usd":null,"composite_authority_tier":null}}},"structural_non_disclosure":false,"structural_non_disclosure_reason":null,"empanelled_partners":[{"partner_name":"University of Bristol","gpu_count":5448,"gpu_model":"NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip","contract_award_url":"https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/press-release/2023/11/uk-government-invests-225m-to-create-uks-most-powerful-ai-supercomputer-with-university-of-bristol-and-hewlett-packard-enterprise.html","authority_tier":1,"vintage":"2023-11-01","notes":"Hosts and operates Isambard-AI at the National Composites Centre (NCC), Bristol and Bath Science Park. HPE press release states 5,448 NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips; launched July 2025. Named as AIRR Phase 1 host institution in UKRI announcement.","partner_canonical_org_id":"org-empanelled-university-of-bristol","allocation_stage":"commissioned"},{"partner_name":"Hewlett Packard Enterprise","gpu_count":null,"gpu_model":"NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip","contract_award_url":"https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/press-release/2023/11/uk-government-invests-225m-to-create-uks-most-powerful-ai-supercomputer-with-university-of-bristol-and-hewlett-packard-enterprise.html","authority_tier":1,"vintage":"2023-11-01","notes":"Selected to build Isambard-AI using HPE Cray EX platform with HPE Slingshot 11 interconnect and Cray Clusterstor E1000 storage. Named verbatim in HPE/UK government joint press release.","partner_canonical_org_id":"org-hewlett-packard-enterprise","allocation_stage":"awarded","data_quality_flags":["aggregate_only_disclosure"]},{"partner_name":"University of Cambridge","gpu_count":1024,"gpu_model":"Intel Data Center GPU Max 1550","contract_award_url":"https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/cambridge-intel-and-dell-join-forces-on-uks-fastest-ai-supercomputer","authority_tier":1,"vintage":"2023-11-01","notes":"Hosts Dawn at Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab. Cambridge press release states 1,024 Intel Data Center GPU Max 1550 accelerators on 256 Dell PowerEdge XE9640 nodes. Named AIRR Phase 1 host alongside Bristol.","partner_canonical_org_id":"org-university-of-cambridge","allocation_stage":"commissioned"},{"partner_name":"Intel","gpu_count":null,"gpu_model":"Intel Data Center GPU Max 1550","contract_award_url":"https://newsroom.intel.com/artificial-intelligence/intel-dell-power-uk-fastest-ai-supercomputer","authority_tier":1,"vintage":"2023-11-01","notes":"Named hardware vendor for Dawn at Cambridge alongside Dell; Intel Data Center GPU Max 1550 accelerators. Source: Intel newsroom press release.","partner_canonical_org_id":"org-intel-connected-home-division","allocation_stage":"awarded","data_quality_flags":["aggregate_only_disclosure"]},{"partner_name":"Dell Technologies","gpu_count":null,"gpu_model":null,"contract_award_url":"https://newsroom.intel.com/artificial-intelligence/intel-dell-power-uk-fastest-ai-supercomputer","authority_tier":1,"vintage":"2023-11-01","notes":"Named hardware vendor for Dawn (Cambridge); supplied 256 Dell PowerEdge XE9640 server nodes with direct liquid cooling. Source: Intel newsroom press release naming Dell Technologies.","partner_canonical_org_id":"org-dell","allocation_stage":"awarded","data_quality_flags":["aggregate_only_disclosure"]},{"partner_name":"StackHPC","gpu_count":null,"gpu_model":null,"contract_award_url":"https://www.ukri.org/news/300-million-to-launch-first-phase-of-new-ai-research-resource/","authority_tier":1,"vintage":"2023-11-01","notes":"Named in UKRI press release as Bristol-based technology SME involved in 'Scientific Openstack' — the collaborative cloud-based service layer connecting Isambard-AI and Dawn for concurrent researcher access.","partner_canonical_org_id":"org-empanelled-stackhpc","allocation_stage":"empanelled","data_quality_flags":["aggregate_only_disclosure"]},{"partner_name":"NVIDIA","gpu_count":5448,"gpu_model":"NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip","contract_award_url":"https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/press-release/2023/11/uk-government-invests-225m-to-create-uks-most-powerful-ai-supercomputer-with-university-of-bristol-and-hewlett-packard-enterprise.html","authority_tier":1,"vintage":"2023-11-01","notes":"GPU supplier for Isambard-AI; 5,448 GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips. Named in HPE press release. Note: Sovereign AI Unit managing-partner role was open to recruitment as of the source date; no empanelled external investment partners were publicly named.","partner_canonical_org_id":"org-nvidia","allocation_stage":"awarded"}],"data_quality_flags":["Two figures must not be added together: GBP 2B+ of government compute money and GBP 44B of private-sector pledges are separate.","Verified: the GBP 2B compute commitment, the GBP 250M current AIRR tranche, and the 420 ExaFLOPS target. The primary source is the UK Compute Roadmap (gov.uk, July 2025), with the AI Opportunities Action Plan of January 2025 as the framework document and 'AI Action Plan One Year On' of January 2026 as the progress report.","Verified: the Isambard-AI full system, 5,448 GH200, launched on 17 July 2025 (bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/july/isambard-launch.html), at £225M total investment and 5MW capacity, with the AI Safety Institute confirmed as a beneficiary and the system ranked the second-greenest supercomputer worldwide on the Green500. Phase 1 — 168 GH200 on an HPE Cray EX2500 partition — was the initial power-on of 26 March 2024, ranked #128 on the TOP500 at ISC June 2024, and was integrated into the 5,448 GH200 full system at the July 2025 launch: the two are not separate operational deployments.","Verified: the Sovereign AI Unit is chaired by James Wise of Balderton, and its £500M fund launches on 16 April 2026 (sovereignai.gov.uk, gov.uk).","Verified: the Edinburgh supercomputer is worth up to GBP 750M and is expected online in 2027 (gov.uk).","Converted to USD: GBP amounts at approximately 1.32 GBP/USD, the March 2026 average, giving approximately $2.64B for the £2B compute commitment and approximately $660M for the £500M fund.","The Edinburgh supercomputer's accelerator count is unverified, procurement not being complete.","38 of 50 AI Action Plan actions met as of January 2026 one-year review","Update, 2026-07-14: the AI Hardware Plan was announced on 2026-06-08 (gov.uk, tier 1, retrieved from the publisher's own site) at GBP 1.1B in total — GBP 750M for a new national AI supercomputer, including GBP 400M to purchase next-generation AI chips; GBP 120M for a new AI Hardware Innovation Programme; GBP 45M for skills; and up to GBP 150M from the British Business Bank for a new investment fund. The USD conversion reuses this record's established approximately 1.32 GBP/USD (March 2026 average) convention, giving approximately $1.452B. It is distinct from the GBP 2B Compute Roadmap and the GBP 500M Sovereign AI Unit already on this record, with no overlap identified: different named programs, different announcement dates."],"last_validated_at":"2026-08-15"}