All in on Us Big Tech: Why the Uk's "£150b AI Investment" May Never Arrive

"The Tech Prosperity Deal is a significant bet on US-led AI infrastructure rather than a step towards UK technological sovereignty. The numbers are speculative, the economic benefits remain uncertain, while the risks of dependency, rising energy costs, and limited job creation are substantial. To avoid long-term vulnerabilities, the UK government will at the very least need to introduce clearer conditions and safeguards to ensure that these investments serve national interests and deliver broad public value.

As the economist Mariana Mazzucato pointed out in the Guardian, “governing AI for the common good means steering markets, not just opening them up for ‘business-friendly’ contracts. [...] For a government struggling to bring the public with it, promising growth through unfettered AI adoption risks repeating the mistakes that fuelled populist backlash against globalisation. When citizens see deals with tech companies while local jobs fail to materialise at resource-heavy datacentres, the political costs are inevitable.”