British AI start-ups working in fields that could transform everyone’s lives for the better, and that will be critical to the UK’s national security, are set to receive support through the Sovereign AI Unit – a £500 million first-of-its-kind national effort to back Britain’s smartest founders and keep the future of AI built on British shores.
BriCS are proud to be providing the compute to power this fund, with successful portfolio companies being awarded up to 1 million GPU hours on Isambard-AI, part of the AI Research Resource (AIRR) funded by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSIT).
Unlike traditional government programmes, Sovereign AI is built to work at the pace of the AI industry. It acts like a venture capital fund with the muscle of the state behind it, moving fast, backing ambition and cutting through the red tape that so often holds brilliant ideas back. 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.
Support goes far beyond funding alone. Startups backed by Sovereign AI will gain access to support normally reserved for the biggest players in tech, including:
- World class compute: fully funded access to the UK’s largest AI supercomputers via AIRR, with up to 1 million GPU hours available per startup – providing the horsepower needed to help train state of the art AI models
- Fast-track global talent: every company receiving investment will get visa decisions within a working day, plus access to an initial 10 cost-free visas for the world’s top R&D talent to come and work for them in the UK
- Hands on government support: help navigating access to data, early procurement opportunities, independent product validation and routes into new approaches to regulation
The UK already has the ingredients needed for success: top talent, stability, leading institutions, world-class universities, and a culture of entrepreneurialism. This includes the £225m government-funded national facility, Isambard-AI, built and run by the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCS) at University of Bristol, in close partnership with HPE and NVIDIA, which is able to process in one second what it would take the entire global population 80 years to achieve. 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.
The first companies to receive support are working on technologies that could transform daily life – from tackling devastating diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, to building AI systems and computer chips that push the limits of what today’s technology can do. Today the Department of Science, Innovation and Tehnology are announcing that Sovereign AI’s first equity investment will be in the AI infrastructure startup Callosum, while 6 further startups will receive access to some of the UK’s foremost supercomputing capacity through the Unit:
- Callosum: Builds the core systems that help advanced AI run smoothly behind the scenes.
- Prima Mente: Uses AI to study biology and turn discoveries into real medical and research results.
- Doubleword: Lets people run AI tasks more cheaply by using computing power efficiently.
- Cosine: Creates an AI coding assistant that helps developers write and manage code better.
- Cursive: Builds AI that powers real-time content and experiences on the internet.
- Odyssey: Develops AI that learns how the world works so it can predict and interact over time.
- Twig: Uses automated labs to design and test new microbes quickly.
The goal is simple – help AI companies start in Britain, scale here and win globally – instead of seeing world-class ideas leave the UK as soon as they begin to succeed. Or, leave before they’ve even started due to lack of backing and infrastructure.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: "We believe in Britain and we are betting on Britain. We are backing our brilliant innovators and entrepreneurs so we seize the benefits of AI to reshape Britain for the benefit of all."
BriCS Director, Professor Simon McIntosh-Smith said: “We are proud to be powering the portfolio of this Sovereign AI fund. The technical team at BriCS are already working with awarded companies to get up and running with their compute allocations on Isambard-AI. This fast investment from Sovereign AI echoes the pace of the AI revolution and the supercomputer itself."
Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Evelyn Welch, said: “The University of Bristol champions AI across research, teaching, and industry. We’re honoured to provide the Isambard-AI supercomputer as a national resource for researchers and innovators across the country. Through Sovereign AI, entrepreneurs based right here in the UK can access the compute they need from us quickly and without challenge, enabling them to create solutions that impact our country and our world."