Peter Kyle, the UK’s technology secretary, will set out the country’s credentials as a global hub for AI investment during his visit to the United States this week (18 to 25 March).

Speaking at Nvidia’s annual conference in San Jose, California, Kyle will outline how government is “rewiring” the UK’s economy to run on AI, helping the country to capitalise on transformative opportunities while moving wealth creation away from just London.

Addressing business leaders, developers, and innovators, the tech secretary will lay out his vision for how AI and advanced technologies can work to help solve some of our most complex shared challenges.

The tech is already being leveraged by the UK Government to improve public services and help foster fresh economic growth, which is a central pillar of the government’s Plan for Change.

Kyle’s also set to outline how the UK’s AI sector—valued at over $92 billion (or £71bn~) and projected to surpass $1 trillion by 2035—will position the UK as a major AI-leading nation, with a wealth of investment opportunities now being opened to US companies and financial backers.

Central to his message will be the UK’s readiness for AI investment, with a particular focus on how “the relics of economic eras past will be transformed into the UK’s innovative AI Growth Zones.”

A key component of the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, the AI Growth Zones are strategically-designated areas, designed to rapidly attract large-scale AI investment through streamlined regulations and dedicated infrastructure.

Speaking at Nvidia’s annual conference, the tech secretary is expected to discuss how these Growth Zones, with access to large power connections, and a planning system designed to cut the time it takes to start up construction, will help to build a compute infrastructure which the UK “has never seen before.”

“In empty factories and abandoned mines, in derelict sites and unused power supplies, I see the places where we can begin to build a new economic model,” Kyle is expected to say at the conference.

“A model completely rewired around the immense power of artificial intelligence.

“Where, faced with that power, the state is neither a blocker nor a shirker – but an agile, proactive partner.

“In Britain, we want to turn the relics of economic eras past into AI Growth Zones.”

Recommended reading

• UK Gov Partners with Anthropic, Focuses on AI Security
• UK’s AI Research Ecosystem Needs Heightened Security, Report Finds
• Nearly Half of All Data Centres to Be Used for AI by 2030

As part of the visit, Kyle will meet with key companies in the US tech sector including Open AI, Anthropic, Nvidia, and Vantage, in an attempt to bang the drum for more companies to set up shop in the UK as their home-from-home.

The technology secretary is expected to additionally say: “There is a real hunger for investment in Britain, and people who are optimistic about the future, and hopeful for the opportunities which AI will bring for them and their families.

“States owe it to their citizens to support it. Not through diktat or directive, but through partnership.”