The UK government has announced its backing for Ineffable Intelligence, a newly formed British AI company developing algorithms designed to learn independently and generate new knowledge, rather than relying solely on existing human data.

The company becomes the latest recipient of support from the government’s Sovereign AI Fund, an initiative aimed at helping high-potential AI startups grow and scale from within the UK. Through the scheme, Sovereign AI and the British Business Bank will co-invest in the firm as it builds its technology, expands its team and develops its operations domestically.

Ineffable Intelligence has been founded by David Silver, a Professor at University College London and former Head of Reinforcement Learning at Google DeepMind. Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in modern AI, Silver played a key role in major breakthroughs including AlphaGo, which defeated the world champion in the complex strategy game Go.

The company’s core focus is on developing a new class of AI systems that learn through experience. Unlike traditional models trained on vast datasets, these systems are designed to interact with their environment, test hypotheses and refine their performance over time. This approach, the company argues, could enable AI to uncover entirely new solutions and insights, with potential applications across science, medicine and engineering.

The Sovereign AI Fund itself is positioned as a departure from previous government-backed initiatives, operating with a venture capital-style model intended to move quickly, support ambitious projects and reduce bureaucratic barriers. Its remit includes direct investment in promising UK AI startups, alongside support to help them scale and compete internationally.

Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: “Sovereign AI is our bet on Britain – we believe in this nation’s entrepreneurs and innovators and we are backing them to seize the benefits of AI for the UK.

“This investment in Ineffable will support a company at the very frontier of AI, with the potential to transform entire sectors, underlining our determination to ensure that the UK isn’t just an AI taker but an AI maker.

“It also demonstrates Sovereign AI moving at real speed – locking down its second direct investment in just a couple of months, while also securing a really effective partnership with the British Business Bank.”

AI Minister Kanishka Narayan added: “David Silver is one of the world’s foremost AI leaders, now taking one of the world’s most innovative approaches to frontier AI. I am delighted that he is doing so right here in the UK, backed by the full support of the British state.

“With support from Sovereign AI and the British Business Bank, we are together showing what British AI can be: the best talent, backed by exceptional state capacity, building AI in Britain, changing the world with it.”

Josephine Kant, Head of Ventures at the Sovereign AI Unit, said: “Very few founders in the world could credibly set out to build a superlearner – a system that discovers new knowledge from its own experience, rather than ours. David is one of them. From AlphaGo to AlphaZero to AlphaProof, he has spent nearly 2 decades turning reinforcement learning from a research idea into the results the rest of the field builds on.

“Ineffable is being built in the UK – and that matters. Our job at Sovereign AI is to make sure founders with this level of ambition never have to choose between it and their home – backing them with the speed of venture and the strength of a nation, and standing behind them for the long term as they build category-defining companies.”

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Charlotte Lawrence, Managing Director of Direct Equity at the British Business Bank, said: “David Silver is a generational talent who has consistently been on the cutting edge of AI development. Ineffable Intelligence has the potential to produce a paradigm shift in our scientific and technology landscape, and we are incredibly excited to be supporting him and his team in this endeavour.”

Launched only weeks ago, the Sovereign AI Unit has now backed eight companies in total. Alongside Ineffable Intelligence, this includes Callosum, which is developing a new class of AI infrastructure and has received equity investment.

A further six startups – Prima Mente, Cosine, Cursive, Doubleword, Twig Bio and Odyssey – will gain access to the AI Research Resource (AIRR) supercomputer network. The programme also grants Sovereign AI a right of first refusal on future investments in several of these firms. Access to national supercomputing infrastructure is intended to address one of the sector’s most significant barriers: the need for high-performance hardware, such as GPUs, required to train advanced models and run complex simulations.

The announcement comes ahead of further plans expected later this week from the Technology Secretary to strengthen the UK’s sovereign AI capabilities.