Nvidia’s Jensen Huang: ‘Praise and promise are useless’ without UK AI infrastructure
“Praise and promise are completely useless” without AI infrastructure, Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, told City AM when asked about the effusive comments he made on Britain’s AI capabilities just a couple of days prior.
At London Tech Week on Monday, the tech heavyweight dubbed ‘AI godfather’ lauded the UK’s AI talent, but flagged a critical lack of infrastructure.
Speaking after his keynote at the event, Huang acknowledged the UK’s “incredible” depth of talent and startup momentum.
But, he said, none of that will count for much without urgent investment in national computing capacity.
“Praise and promise reminds you of the opportunity that you’re leaving behind”, Huang repeated to City AM at Viva Tech Paris.
“When I described the UK as having a ‘Goldilocks’ momentum, it’s because its circumstances are unusually well-aligned. One, it has such incredible talent – and a pipeline of it”.
“Somehow, the UK is really good at producing computer scientists”, he added, “but this is the largest AI ecosystem in the world without its own infrastructure. That’s surprising”.
Is a £1bn promise enough?
His comments came as London Tech Week kicked off with Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiling a £1bn plan to boost the UK’s AI computing power twentyfold.
Speaking just before Huang, Starmer labelled the announcement as a “huge vote of confidence” for Britain’s tech economy – and a “huge increase in the size and power of Britain’s AI engine”.
The UK ranks third globally for private AI investment, trailing only the US and China.
It is home to a wave of promising startups like Wayve and Synthesia, as well as world-leading research centres like London-born DeepMind.
But Huang warned that, unlike other AI giants, Britain still lacks the sovereign compute infrastructure needed to compete at the highest level.
“If you exclude the US and China, which have their own flywheels, the UK is the largest AI ecosystem in the world without its own infrastructure”, the Nvidia boss told CityAM.
“Usually with something like that, you go ‘Huh, that’s interesting. Let’s do something about it’. That’s all I’m saying. And of course, I could be helpful”, he added.
Signs of a positive response
There are signs that the UK government appears to be listening.
Alongside Starmer’s announcement, firms like Nebius and Nscale are investing in UK-based data centres – facilities that will run thousands of Nvidia’s most advanced chips.
Nvidia, too, is digging deeper roots into British soil.
The tech titan announced on Monday that it will be launching a new AI tech centre in Bristol to train UK developers in cutting-edge models and robotics.
It also pledged to establish a new ‘UK sovereign AI industry forum’ alongside heavyweights like BAE Systems, BT, and Standard Chartered.
Meanwhile, the chipmaker is also working with the Financial Conduct Authority and fintech platform NayaOne to create a ‘digital sandbox’ – a testbed for AI use in risk and regulation.
And on Wednesday, in her first Spending Review, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an additional £2bn in funding to deliver the AI adviser Matt Clifford’s ‘AI action plan’, along with £1.2bn for high-skilled tech apprenticeships and training.
Reeves also promised to extend R&D investment to record highs, reaching over £22bn by the end of the review period, in a move aimed at long term assurance for researchers.
The gap remains
Yet, the UK’s spending still lags behind its global peers.
Last year, it drew just $4.5bn (£3.3bn) in private AI investment – compared to $109.1bn and $9.3bn in the US and China, respectively, according to Stanford’s 2025 AI index.
This prompted Clifford to call for a massive scale-up in public compute capacity in the UK’s AI plan, which was released in January.
The white paper set out aims for government-owned infrastructure equivalent to 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by 2030.
The urgency is swelling. Just this week, the government also confirmed that all UK civil servants will receive AI training by Autumn, with a mandate to embrace more ‘calculated risks’, according to the cabinet secretary Chris Wormald.
Huang’s warning echoes concerns voiced by leading UK academics and AI founders, who have repeatedly called on the government to fund sovereign infrastructure rather than relying on cloud services hosted abroad.
As he put it: “The UK has an extraordinary opportunity – but only if it acts”.