Chancellor John Healey has set out what he calls a "distinctively British approach to AI", unveiling hundreds of millions of pounds of investment to guard against the risks of the technology while spreading its benefits to every part of the country.
At the heart of the package, which will form part of next week's Budget, is £165 million for a new National AI Biosecurity Initiative. It includes £100 million for a world-first AI Biosecurity Lab that will use AI to detect and track biological threats, and £65 million to strengthen bio-surveillance and develop medical countermeasures for priority pathogens. OpenAI and Anthropic will support the lab with up to £200 million in AI model credits, with Google DeepMind and London-based Basecamp Research also signed up as partners.
John Healey: 'One that doesn't leave workers behind'
"AI will transform daily life: every firm, community, hospital, school, and every aspect of our economy can benefit," John Healey said. "I understand and share the concerns of working people, so I am setting out a distinctively British approach to AI - one that doesn't leave workers behind and defends our national interest, while ensuring the benefits of AI-enabled growth are felt right across the country."
The plans include £10 million a year to lead the UK's work on how AI will reshape jobs and industry and how Britain needs to prepare, responding directly to workers' worries about AI replacing their jobs.
Security and homegrown capability
The AI Security Institute will receive an extra £120 million for testing and research on the capabilities and risks of new AI systems. A £60 million National Cyber Shield will use agentic AI to strengthen the UK's cyber defences, including a £25 million challenge fund for British AI and cyber security innovators, and a new £70 million National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability Centre will deploy AI tools to find weaknesses across critical infrastructure.
To back British firms, the Sovereign AI Fund gets an additional £60 million to invest directly in promising UK AI companies, expanding into physical and industrial AI such as robotics and advanced manufacturing. A further £18 million will set up a UK Advanced Chip Design Academy, with new AI chip design capability planned in Edinburgh and a National Cyber Security Centre AI Cyber Security Centre of Excellence in Manchester.
Kanishka Narayan: 'We cannot afford to rely entirely on technology built overseas'
AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said the AI Biosecurity Lab would be "a major new global institution, bringing together world-leading scientific expertise to protect people from emerging biological threats". He added: "By backing British science, advanced chips and our own AI companies, we can strengthen our national security, rebuild Britain's industrial strength and create good, skilled jobs across the country."
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said the investment would help the UK "seize the opportunities AI presents to strengthen our national security, while staying one step ahead of those who seek to use AI to do us harm".
Good growth in every postcode
The package also includes £30 million to kickstart local AI partnerships with mayoral strategic authorities, a £15 million AI Challenge Prize whose first award will target firms solving health problems, and an extra £23 million over three years for the AI Economics Institute, which will also support the UK's G20 presidency next year.
Julian David, chief executive of techUK, called it "a strong £600m+ package focused on AI adoption, trust and security, investment and AI's impact on jobs and society" that would help British AI firms "grow here, not abroad".
