British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pitches UK as home of A.I. safety regulation as London bids to be next Silicon Valley
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks to the media during London Tech Week at the QEII centre on June 12, 2023.
Ian Vogler | Wpa Pool | Getty Images
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a big pitch to the tech community Monday, casting the U.K. as a global center for artificial intelligence and regulation of the technology.
“We must act and act quickly if we want not only to retain our position as one of the world’s tech capitals, but to go even further and make this the best country in the world to start grow and invest in tech businesses,” Sunak said, addressing a crowded tech conference in London Monday.
“I feel a sense of urgency and responsibility to make sure that we see things because one of my five priorities is to grow our economy. And the more we innovate, the more we grow.”
“I want to make the U.K. not just the intellectual home but the geographical home of global AI safety regulation,” Sunak added.
The U.K. is trying to compete with global giants in the arena of AI, one of the most hyped areas of tech currently in the advent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other generative AI tools.
Separately, the country is also pitching itself as the “next Silicon Valley,” with Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt making several reforms to the country’s financial regulations to encourage more venture capital investment and listings from high-growth technology firms.
Much of the most commercially advanced work around the technology is originating from the U.S., with major companies such as Microsoft-backed OpenAI, and other tech giants, such as Google (which bought U.K.-based AI company DeepMind in 2014) and Meta, making huge investments in generative AI in particular.
However, the U.K. is trying to make measures of its own to be more of a leader in the world of AI. The government in March published a white paper detailing its plan for AI regulation, which sought to take a principles-based approach to the technology rather than proposing new tailored regulations.
Sunak last week announced the first global AI safety summit in the U.K. later this year, looking to make a bold commitment on Britain’s position in the global regulatory discourse surrounding the technology as officials in the U.S., European Union and beyond seek to get a handle on AI.
Last month, the CEOs of OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic made a visit to the U.K., speaking with the prime minister about their approach to ensuring safe development of AI. AI leaders are trying to convince officials that they are keeping safety in mind when creating advanced AI models, as
There is currently no concrete regulation for AI in any major developed nation. The European Union is seeking to change that with the EU AI Act, which lawmakers are due to vote on in Parliament later this week. But these are laws that are unlikely to come into force until well into the future.
The U.K. has seen some of its most decorated tech firms sour on the country as a place to begin a tech business, with the critical Cambridge-based chip design firm Arm opting to list in New York in favor of London earlier this year, and the CEO of Revolut saying he would “never list” in London citing an unfavorable tax regime and bureaucratic regulation.
Sunak defied naysayers about the U.K. technology prospects on Monday. In conversation with the CEO of Google DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, Sunak said that Britain is “already a great place to scale up a tech business.”
“Over the last decade, [there have been] more unicorns in this country than anywhere other than the U.S. and China. I think that’s a pretty good record and a good base for us to start from, but obviously we need to keep doing well, we need to keep pushing ourselves.”
“Something like half of all of our fastest-growing innovation businesses have a foreign-born founder, so that tells you you need a visa system that attracts the best and the brightest to the U.K. And I think we’ve got one.”
Hassabis, who recently was promoted to lead Google’s AI research efforts, said he has seen the culture around fostering entrepreneurship in the U.K. change over the years.
“When we started DeepMind back in 2010, things were very different then. I remember our first investors, who were U.S.-based, and we had to go to the U.S. to get our first investment, sort of suspicious of if you could build huge deep tech companies anywhere other than Silicon Valley.
“I think it is a lot easier to start and grow very difficult and very meaningful, the tech companies. So you know, it’s been it’s been great to see that I think there’s a huge opportunity to come here.”
WATCH: Can China’s ChatGPT clones give it an edge over the U.S. in an A.I. arms race?
Intel snapped a losing streak of six straight quarterly losses and returned to profitability in the third quarter.
In its first earnings report since the Trump administration acquired a 10% stake in the company, the U.S. chipmaker posted strong revenue, noting robust demand for chips that it expects to continue into 2026.
Client computing revenue, which includes chips for PCs and laptops, grew 5% year over year, benefiting from PC market stabilization and artificial intelligence PC prospects.
CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a call with analysts Thursday that artificial intelligence “is a strong foundation for sustainable long-term growth as we execute.”
The chip strength and demand were bright spots, but there were areas of concern as well, with the company’s foundry business still needing a big break.
Here are three takeaways from the chipmaker’s Q3 report:
Cash flow
“We significantly improved our cash position and liquidity in Q3, a key focus for me since becoming CEO in March,” Tan said on a call with analysts Thursday.
Intel landed an $8.9 billion investment from the U.S. government in August, along with $2 billion from Softbank, but has not yet received the $5 billion tied to a deal with Nvidia. The company expects that deal to close by the end of Q4.
With all of those transactions completed, plus the Altera sale, Intel will have $35 billion in cash on hand, CFO David Zinser told CNBC.
The U.S. government is the company’s biggest shareholder, and Intel stock is up more than 50% since Aug. 22, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced the deal.
“Like any shareholder, we have to keep in touch with them,” Zinser said of the U.S. stake. “We don’t tell them how the numbers are going before the quarter. We generally talk to them like Fidelity,” another Intel shareholder.
Intel 3-month stock chart.
Foundry
The firm’s foundry remains a work in progress.
Revenue fell 2% over the year before, and it has yet to land a major customer.
Intel now has two fabs running 18A nodes, which are designed for AI and high-performance computing applications.
“We are making steady progress on Intel 18A,” Tan said of its latest chip technology. “We are on track to bring Panther Lake to market this year.”
Zinser said the more advanced 14A nodes won’t be put in supply until the company has “real firm demand.”
Old stuff still selling
Zinser said the company’s older chipmaking processes, or nodes, have continued to do well, “and that was probably the part that was more unexpected.”
Zinser said the chipmaker met some of the central processing unit (CPU) demand with inventory on hand, but they will be behind in Q1, “probably Q2 and maybe in Q3.”
The supply crunch has been with older Intel 10 and 7 manufacturing technologies.
Many customers are opting for less advanced hardware to refresh their operating systems, demonstrating enterprises aren’t waiting for cutting-edge chips when proven technology gets the job done.
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