Higher taxes will make it harder for Britain to build ‘the next Nvidia,’ tech execs say
UK Finance Minister Rachel Reeves makes a speech during the Labour Party Conference that is held at the ACC Liverpool Convention Center in Liverpool, UK on September 23, 2024.
Anadolu | Getty Images
LONDON — British tech bosses and venture capitalists are questioning whether the country can deliver on its bid to become a global artificial intelligence hub after the government set out plans to increase taxes on businesses.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Rachel Reeves announced a move to hike capital gains tax (CGT) — a levy on the profit investors make from the sale of an investment — as part of a far-reaching announcement on the Labour government’s fiscal spending and tax plans.
The lower capital gains tax rate was increased to 18% from 10%, while the higher rate climbed to 24% from 20%. Reeves said the increases will help bring in £2.5 billion ($3.2 billion) of additional capital to the public purses.
It was also announced that the lifetime limit for business asset disposal relief (BADR) — which offers entrepreneurs a reduced rate on the level of tax paid on capital gains resulting from the sale of all or part of a company — would sit at £1 million.
She added that the rate of CGT applied to entrepreneurs using the BADR scheme will increase to 14% in 2025 and to 18% a year later. Still, Reeves said the U.K. would still have the lowest capital gains tax rate of any European G7 economy.
The hikes were less severe than previously feared — but the push toward a higher tax environment for corporates stoked the concern of several tech executives and investors, with many suggesting the move would lead to higher inflation and a slowdown in hiring.
On top of increases to CGT, the government also raised the rate of National Insurance (NI) contributions, a tax on earnings. Reeves forecasted the move would raise £25 billion per year — by far the largest revenue raising measure in a raft of pledges that were made Wednesday.
Paul Taylor, CEO and co-founder of fintech firm Thought Machine, said that hike to NI rates would lead to an additional £800,000 in payroll spending for his business.
“This is a significant amount for companies like us, which rely on investor capital and already face cost pressures and targets,” he noted.
“Nearly all emerging tech businesses run on investor capital, and this increase sets them back on their path to profitability,” added Taylor, who sits on the lobbying group Unicorn Council for U.K. FinTech. “The U.S. startup and entrepreneurial environment is a model of where the U.K. needs to be.”
Chances of building ‘the next Nvidia’ more slim
Another increase to taxation by way of a rise in the tax rate for carried interest — the level of tax applied to the share of profit a fund manager makes from a private equity investment.
Reeves announced that the rate of tax on carried interest, which is charged on capital gains, would rise to 32%, up from 28% currently.
Haakon Overli, co-founder of European venture capital firm Dawn Capital, said that increases to capital gains tax could make it harder for the next Nvidia to be built in the U.K.
“If we are to have the next NVIDIA built in the UK, it will come from a company born from venture capital investment,” Overli said by email.
“The tax returns from creating such a company, which is worth more than the FTSE 100 put together, would dwarf any gains from increasing the take from venture capital today.”
The government is carrying out further consultation with industry stakeholders on plans to up taxes on carried interest. Anne Glover, CEO of Amadeus Capital, an early investor in Arm, said this was a good thing.
“The Chancellor has clearly listened to some of the concerns of investors and business leaders,” she said, adding that talks on carried interest reforms must be “equally as productive and engaged.”
Britain also committed to mobilizing £70 billion of investment through the recently formed National Wealth Fund — a state-backed investment platform modelled on sovereign wealth vehicles such as Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
This, Glover added, “aligns with our belief that investment in technology will ultimately lead to long term growth.”
She nevertheless urged the government to look seriously at mandating that pension funds diversify their allocation to riskier assets like venture capital — a common ask from VCs to boost the U.K. tech sector.
Clarity welcomed
Steve Hare, CEO of accounting software firm Sage, said the budget would mean “significant challenges for UK businesses, especially SMBs, who will face the impact of rising employer National Insurance contributions and minimum wage increases in the months ahead.”
Even so, he added that many firms would still welcome the “longer-term certainty and clarity provided, allowing them to plan and adapt effectively.”
Meanwhile, Sean Reddington, founder and CEO of educational technology firm Thrive, said that higher CGT rates mean tech entrepreneurs will face “greater costs when selling assets,” while the rise in employer NI contributions “could impact hiring decisions.”
“For a sustainable business environment, government support must go beyond these fiscal changes,” Reddington said. “While clearer tax communication is positive, it’s unlikely to offset the pressures of heightened taxation and rising debt on small businesses and the self-employed.”
He added, “The crucial question is how businesses can maintain profitability with increased costs. Government support is essential to offset these new burdens and ensure the UK’s entrepreneurial spirit continues to thrive.”
China’s artificial intelligence device market is already booming, and in the advanced technology race against the U.S., the country’s expertise in hardware could give it an edge.
“The advantage comes from the fundamental root that China is a nation of manufacturing,” Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, CEO of 01.AI and chairman of Sinovation Ventures, told CNBC. “Today, the competition is on the software, the models, the agents, the applications. But soon it will move to devices.”
Meta has sold millions of its smart glasses since introducing the specs in 2023, and the Chinese have caught on, with more than 70 Chinese companies creating competing products in the space.
Eyewear from companies such as Inmo and Rokid are sold worldwide. Xiaomi and Alibaba‘s are found only in China and are embedded with the tech giants’ own AI.
Alibaba’s DingTalk, a messaging platform for the workplace, this year released a credit card-sized AI gizmo meant for note-taking on the job.
The DingTalk A1 can record, transcribe, summarize and analyze speech from as far as 8 meters (26 feet) away, about the length of a large boardroom.
The device is similar to the Plaud Note, which is available in the U.S.
The device experimentation in China spans from the practical to the unconventional.
Chinese startup Le Le Gaoshang Education Technology released a “Native Language Star” brand translating gadget aimed at Chinese parents with limited English to teach English to their own children.
The contraption, which is looped around the back of a user’s neck like a travel neck pillow and comes down toward the chest, has a sort of muzzle unit that goes over the mouth and mutes the user’s own voice.
The unit is embedded with Tencent and iFlyTek AI and is billed as a way to turn an English-speaking Chinese parent into a “laowai,” or foreigner. It retails for $420.
Having so many hardware touchpoints helps with adoption and with getting people used to the technology. It’s also a boost for companies to gather a war chest of data compared to other countries, analysts say.
“When you still hear people outside of China talking about what the future of the AI device might be, the market is full of AI devices here already,” tech consultant Tom van Dillen of Greenkern said at his office in Beijing. “This creates this feedback loop again to make the AI even better.”
Yet an edge in hardware is far from a guarantee to win the AI race, especially if China’s AI lacks appeal with global customers due to privacy or other issues, or if it falls well behind its counterparts in the U.S. or elsewhere.
“You really have to be that Apple iPhone to reap the most of the reward,” Lee cautioned, referencing late entrepreneur Steve Jobs’ invention that is often seen as one of the most transformative consumer products ever. “I think the China advantage for building the Apple iPhone for the AI age is that the capabilities are there — engineers and entrepreneurs, and so on. But it will still be a race.”
Technology
Trump greenlights Nvidia H200 AI chip sales to China if U.S. gets 25% cut, says Xi responded positively
President Donald Trump on Monday said Nvidia will be allowed to ship its H200 artificial intelligence chips to “approved customers” in China and elsewhere, on the condition that the U.S. gets a 25% cut.
Chinese President Xi Jinping “responded positively” to the proposal, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
The policy “will support American Jobs, strengthen U.S. Manufacturing, and benefit American Taxpayers,” Trump wrote.
“The Department of Commerce is finalizing the details, and the same approach will apply to AMD, Intel, and other GREAT American Companies,” he added in the post.
Both Nvidia and chip rival AMD, short for Advanced Micro Devices, agreed in August to share 15% of the revenue from China chip sales with the U.S. government. But around that same time, China reportedly warned companies against using the H20 AI chip that Nvidia designed especially for the country.
The H200 is a higher-grade chip than the H20, but not the company’s top-of-the-line product.
Nvidia shares climbed earlier Monday on news that the Commerce Department was set to approve the China sales, but later pared those gains. The stock rose about 2% after hours.
Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) stock prices
“We applaud President Trump’s decision to allow America’s chip industry to compete to support high paying jobs and manufacturing in America,” a spokesman from Nvidia told CNBC in a statement.
“Offering H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America,” the spokesman said.
Semiconductors, which are key components in nearly every category of electronics, are at the center of the AI race between the U.S. and China.
They have also played a role in the tumultuous trade relationship between the two economic superpowers.
When Beijing imposed export controls on rare-earth minerals, which are used in the production of some high-end chips, the Trump administration threatened to massively increase tariffs on U.S. imports from China.
After meeting in South Korea in late October, Trump and Xi struck a tentative trade truce in which China committed to end “retaliation” against U.S. chipmakers, according to the White House.
Trump said after that meeting that he discussed the export of Nvidia chips with Xi.
— CNBC’s Kristina Partsinevelos and Kif Leswing contributed to this report.
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