Government Cuts £1.3 Billion for Next-Generation Supercomputer and AI Projects
The government stated that it had cancelled the plans due to a lack of funding allocated by the Tories when the plans were initially made last year.
Funding that was promised for a next-generation supercomputer and other AI projects has been cancelled in an effort to save £1.3 billion, confirmed by the government on Friday.
Officials clarified that no funding had been earmarked when the commitment was made by the Conservatives last year.
The Labour government explained that it is making tough spending decisions across Whitehall to maintain financial balance and will present its own strategy for developing the necessary AI infrastructure in the UK.
Andrew Griffith, the shadow science secretary, criticized Labour, suggesting that they have limited ambitions for the UK tech sector.
The supercomputer that has now been scrapped would have been the UK’s premiere exascale supercomputer capable of carrying out a quadrillion calculations per second, the equivalent of 5 million laptops.
This supercomputer was expected to be “50 times more powerful than our current top-end system,” as stated by the Tory government in October 2023 when the University of Edinburgh was announced as its preferred location.
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UK Research and Innovation Chief Executive Dame Ottoline Leyser praised the plan, emphasizing that the advanced compute infrastructure is crucial for advancing research and innovation, with applications ranging from drug design to energy security and weather modeling, benefiting communities nationwide.
This was part of AI funding commitments totaling around £1.5 billion to £1.6 billion announced by the Tory government in their budgets last year.
However, most of these commitments have now been axed except for the £300 million already disbursed.
‘Difficult and Necessary’
The exascale program, projected to cost £800 million, and an additional £500 million for AI research, will no longer be progressed.
The government clarified that there was no provision for new funding in the previous government’s spending plans for these programs.
A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology informed The Epoch Times via email: “We are fully dedicated to constructing technology infrastructure that fosters growth and opportunities for people across the UK.
“The government is making tough and essential spending decisions in all departments to address billions of pounds of unfunded commitments. This is necessary to restore economic stability and achieve our national growth mission.
“We have launched the AI Opportunities Action Plan that will outline how we can enhance our compute infrastructure to better suit our requirements and explore how AI and other emerging technologies can best support our new Industrial Strategy.”
Following the recent developments, Sir Peter Mathieson, principal and vice-chancellor at the University of Edinburgh, has been urgently seeking a meeting with Science Secretary Peter Kyle.
In a statement provided to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson said the university “has been a pioneer in supercomputing in the UK for decades and is willing to collaborate with the government to support the next phase of this technology in the UK, unlocking its benefits for industry, public services, and society.”
In response to the change in policy, the shadow science secretary sought to refute the claim that the Tories had made unfunded promises.
“In reality, at the time the election was called, officials had advised ministers that the department was likely to underspend its budget for the current financial year,” Griffith stated.
In additional comments shared on social media platform X, he expressed, “If Labour has lower ambitions for the UK tech sector—or if the new Secretary of State struggles to garner the same level of support for DSIT from the Chancellor—that’s their issue, but no one should be misled by Labour’s attempt to blame their predecessors.
“We increased public spending on research to a record £20 billion per year for 2024/25 and unlike Labour, we committed to raise it by a further 10% in our manifesto. AI and Exascale compute both benefitted from this increased funding.”
PA Media contributed to this report.
