Professor Simon McIntosh-Smith, Director of the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCS) which runs Isambard-AI, the UK's most powerful AI supercomputer, recently gave evidence to the House of Lords' Science and Technology Committee on ‘The future of UK compute in the age of AI’.
Following his evidence, the Committee voted to make the subject its next inquiry topic, meaning it will consider oral and written evidence before publishing a report with recommendations to the Government.
It comes as the Chancellor unveiled ambitious plans for AI in the Budget and pledged an additional £600m investment in projects related to AI, with the package promising to unlock the opportunities of AI in every postcode, scale up home grown AI firms, and keep the country safe from hostile threats.
Professor McIntosh-Smith warned that, as AI becomes increasingly fundamental to economic growth, scientific progress and national security, the UK cannot afford to rely on capabilities controlled by other countries.
He said: “I’m pleased that such a critical issue is being picked up as a national priority. If AI really is the basis of the next Industrial Revolution, then we are in a historically unique situation where a fundamental new capability that is expected to underpin the health and prosperity of the country is largely under the control of foreign powers.”
He argued that the UK needs a sustained, long-term programme to develop sovereign AI capabilities, encompassing national computing resources, foundation models, datasets and security, supported by a strong ecosystem of research, innovation and commercial development.
Alongside sovereignty, Professor McIntosh-Smith highlighted energy availability and cost as major obstacles to the UK's ability to realise AI's potential.
The growing demand for computing power requires reliable, affordable and sustainable energy supplies, together with the connectivity needed to support advanced computing infrastructure.
He also called for greater attention to the reuse of waste heat generated by data centres, pointing to approaches championed in Scandinavian countries. He said this was an area where government policy could make a meaningful difference.
Developing the specialist workforce needed to build, operate and exploit AI infrastructure is another essential part of the picture.
The University of Bristol is at the forefront of efforts to establish the UK's position in advanced computing through Isambard-AI - the fastest university supercomputer in the world. It is an example of the UK's ability to build world-class computing infrastructure and develop the expertise needed to use it.
Isambard-AI is a £225 million national facility funded by the UK Government and based at NCC. Developed by the University of Bristol in close partnership with HPE and NVIDIA, the supercomputer is able to process in one second what it would take the entire global population 80 years to achieve.
It was officially launched in July 2025 and has supported around 1,000 research projects involving more than 4,000 users in its first year.
From developing new dementia treatments to building UK language models and improving animal welfare, researchers across the UK, businesses, SMEs and the public sector are using Isambard-AI to tackle problems that were previously beyond the UK's computing capability.