With 6 stages, and a Tech Lounge where further discussions and presentations are held, it is impossible to bring you all the news in one post about London Tech Week Day 1. At the AI arena, in the Olympia London venue, there were 25 “speeches and fireside chats” alone, with most between 10 and 20 minutes.
Carolyn Dawson OBE, CEO of Founders Forum Group and Lead for London Tech Week has hosted AMD CEO Lisa Su, and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and below are the topline facts.
AMD
AMD has announced plans to invest up to £2 billion over the next five years in the United Kingdom to expand access to the advanced compute resources needed for long-term economic growth, AI innovation and scientific leadership across the country.
AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su has outlined a series of investments and strategic collaborations, stating:
“The United Kingdom has the talent, research excellence and ambition to help lead the next era of AI. AMD is proud to deepen our commitment to the UK and work with partners across government, academia and industry to expand access to the compute infrastructure needed to advance sovereign AI, accelerate discovery and drive long-term economic growth.”
In response to the investment, Liz Kendall, UK Technology Secretary, stated:
“This investment reflects the strength of Britain’s talent, research and ambition in AI – but also the infrastructure we are putting in place to match it. With world-class chip designers, leading universities, and partners such as AMD choosing to invest here, we are building the compute capability needed to power innovation, drive growth, create jobs, and ensure the most advanced AI technologies are developed in the UK.”
Collaborations with Imperial College London, Oriole Networks and University of Cambridge
Building on its recently announced work with Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC), a UK-based quantum computing company that develops and operates superconducting quantum computers, AMD announced a collaboration with Imperial College London. AMD and Imperial intend to explore opportunities to optimise AI models, scientific workflows and data-intensive applications on AMD compute platforms and AMD ROCm™ open software.
Additionally, AMD is collaborating with Oriole Networks in support of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) Scaling Inference Lab, a national initiative designed to address critical AI infrastructure bottlenecks, utilising AMD Instinct™ GPUs and AMD EPYC™ processors to evaluate new approaches for scaling inference workloads. The initiative supports what is expected to be the world’s first large-scale AI system powered by a pure photonic network.
AMD and Dell Technologies are working with the University of Cambridge on its expanding national AI infrastructure footprint, including the new Zenith AI supercomputer and the Sunrise fusion AI system developed in collaboration with the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). Zenith is a significant new UK AI-for-science platform, funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Sunrise is a second AI supercomputer powered by AMD and Dell being built now, dedicated to the fusion mission.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer
London Tech Week 2026 (held from 8 to 10 June 2026) was officially opened by Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer today. The opening keynotes focused on shaping the technology revolution, building sovereign capabilities, supporting global talent and creating an environment for skills, growth, innovation and governance that will ensure the UK retains its status as third largest technology economy in the world.
The Prime Minister chose the opportunity to speak about Warrington, Britain’s ability to raise close to half of all European investment in tech this year, artificial intelligence (AI), and sovereignty.
The UK’s Global Talent Taskforce was mentioned, alongside US companies Reflection AI, AMD, and Grok. Warrington was mentioned because an ex-Unilever factory is being transformed into a new AI data centre. The progress on the government’s upskilling scheme was that 1.7 million workers out of a targeted 7.5 million workers by 2030 have received AI training.
Additionally, AI tutors will be “rolled out” to the 450,000 children in the UK that are on free school meals in order to close the attainment gap, and the new AI jobs tools announced will help those out of work find the right jobs, and create their CVs, and assumedly [help them] get back into work.
A copy of the UK Prime Minister’s speech can be found here, with political content redacted.
ANS Reaction to UK Prime Minister announcements made today
Richard Thompson, CEO of digital transformation company and Microsoft UK Partner of the Year 2025, ANS, said:
“The Prime Minister has been clear that the rate of technological change isn’t going to slow down. But if the UK is to realise the benefits of AI, access to skills and opportunities must keep pace with innovation. Treating AI fluency as a baseline skill, rather than a specialist advantage, will be critical to ensuring people and businesses can participate in that growth.
“As AI reshapes the workforce, ensuring people from all backgrounds can access careers in technology will be essential. A broader and more diverse talent pool will help businesses access the skills they need while ensuring the benefits of the technology revolution are shared more widely.
“Government can set direction and invest, but it can’t build the talent pipeline alone. Supporting young people into tech roles requires clearer, better-funded routes into skills and early careers that work outside the usual hotspots. The private sector must match that ambition with paid entry routes, meaningful training and supportive progression, so access to opportunity isn’t determined by postcode or school.”
Tech Nation Insights
New data released by Tech Nation in its report, The Next Wave of UK AI valued the UK technology sector at £1.2 trillion in 2026 and reported that UK AI startups have raised more than £8.2bn in venture capital in the first half of 2026. New data, shared ahead of London Tech Week, from Omdia, forecasts that IT spending across Europe will increase by 8.2% in 2026, reaching a total of $1.3 trillion.
Additional announcements made today include:
• Nebius is committing approximately £1.7 billion to build out AI capacity in the UK, with more infrastructure, customers and cloud capabilities for agentic and enterprise AI. This investment funds three new deployments of NVIDIA infrastructure, scaling up to 65 MW of capacity by 2027, and expands the company’s commercial and AI R&D hub in London.
• The Mayor of London unveiled a £12 million AI support package for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The program, developed by London & Partners, will invest £4 million annually over three years to help London’s small businesses adopt AI through readiness assessments, expert mentoring, and tailored guidance.
The London Tech Week Expo ends on Wednesday 10 June, bringing together more than 600 speakers and 30,000 attendees, with more than 100 fringe events taking place across London until Friday 12 June.
More details on speakers and events can be found at https://londontechweek.com/.
