Artificial intelligence (AI) companies focused on supercomputing and drug discovery are among the first cohort of startups to get money and computing resources from the UK government’s £500m Sovereign AI unit, which was officially launched on 16 April at the King’s Cross headquarters of self-driving car company Wayve.
The government’s stated intention is that “by backing [startups] early, the UK is keeping expertise, decision making and economic value at home – and reducing reliance on a small number of foreign tech giants for critical AI that matter for our economic prosperity and national security”.
Technology secretary Liz Kendall said in support of the fund: “Sovereign AI is unlike anything government has ever done before. Its unique approach will help to break down the barriers that have too often held back British enterprise and innovation. This is how we ensure Britain’s economic prosperity and national security in the modern age.
“My message to British founders and innovators is clear – we will ensure you never have to choose between your ambition and your home, because Britain will give you both.”
Rachel Reeves, chancellor of the exchequer, said: “We have the right economic plan – backing business so the technologies of the future are invented, built and deployed here in Britain.
“A thriving domestic AI sector is one of my three big choices for the economy, and by supporting strategic national champions we can ensure internationally competitive companies start, scale and stay here in Britain.”
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has said the fund has made its first compute allocations through the AI Research Resource (AIRR).
The six recipients are in the fields of biological foundation models, world simulation, sovereign inference infrastructure, agentic AI, engineering biology and AI for national security.
Alongside the compute, the fund has agreed Right of First Refusal (ROFR) investment options with some of the recipients, according to DSIT. This is said to create a creating “pathway from early support to follow-on funding”. The fund will continue, said DSIT, to assess applications for compute said to be worth tens of millions of pounds to British startups over the course of this year.
The DSIT statement maintains that the UK has ingredients needed for success: “Top talent, stability, leading institutions, world-class universities and a culture of entrepreneurialism. Sovereign AI is the government betting on Britain to succeed, so our country can shape the AI revolution. This is ultimately how we unlock this technology’s potential for building a stronger and more prosperous society.”
It added that the funding unit will operate like a venture capital entity, backed by the state: “It will invest directly in the UK’s most promising AI startups, help them scale quickly, and give them the support they need to compete with the best in the world.”
Sovereign AI’s first equity investment will be in an AI infrastructure startup Callosum, while six more startups will get access to supercomputing capacity.
Danyal Akarca, founder of Callosum, said: “There’s a fundamental shift underway in how AI systems are built and run. The future of compute is heterogeneous, and making that complexity usable is the next frontier. The UK already understands where this is heading, and with its depth of talent across universities and labs like DeepMind, it is the natural place to build Callosum”, which he described as an “orchestration platform that allows models and chips to work together as one system”.
The other companies supported are Prima Mente, Cosine, Cursive, Doubleword, Twig Bio and Odyssey.
Ravi Solanki, co-founder of Prima Mente, said: “Our deep research collaborations with Oxford, Imperial and Edinburgh are a testament to the UK’s world-class strength in the life sciences. The combination with world-class compute infrastructure from the Sovereign AI Fund has made the UK the right place to work at the frontier of AI and the life sciences.”
Prima Mente is said to use AI to decode the “languages of biology – from DNA sequence to gene expression and epigenetic regulation – to better understand and tackle brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s”.
Cosine develops advanced models and coding agents for defence, national security and regulated industries where foreign-built AI is inadmissible.
The companies supported by the fund are said to benefit from fully funded access to the UK’s largest AI supercomputers, with up to 1 million GPU hours available per startup. Each company getting investment will get visa decisions within a working day, plus access to an initial 10 cost-free visas.
They will get “hands-on government support: help navigating access to data, early procurement opportunities, independent product validation and routes into new approaches to regulation”.
Sovereign AI is also currently in discussions with around 30 firms over potential AIRR access, according to DSIT.
James Wise, a venture capitalist and chair of the Sovereign AI Unit, said: “AI as a technology could be transformational for both our wealth and security. Britain has the foundations be a global AI leader in many fields, with a unique and enviable mix of talent, capital and infrastructure which make this country the natural home for world-leading innovation. Now, through Sovereign AI, we can use the state’s unique capabilities to double down on these strengths, backing Britain’s founders to scale here in the UK and globally.”
Alex Kendall, CEO of Wayve, said: “As a business that has successfully grown and launched in the UK, we’re thrilled to support the launch of the Sovereign AI Unit, which will help support emerging companies, attract talent and ultimately ensure UK AI champions can compete on the global stage. We’re excited to see the next generation of British AI companies benefit from the funding opportunities available and join us in supporting the UK’s expanding AI ecosystem.”
