An increase in computer power will see the United Kingdom (UK) spend $130M on AI chips

As a recent report said 20% of firms are unable to access enough computing power for AI, and the chips will be used for setting up an AI resource. In the midst of a global shortage and scramble for computing capacity, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plans to spend 100 million pounds ($130 million) on thousands of computer processors to power artificial intelligence.

According to The Telegraph, the United Kingdom plans to construct an “AI Research Resource” by mid-2024 as part of Sunak’s strategy to make the country an AI innovation hub. The government is purportedly sourcing chips from NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD, and it is believed that the science funding organization UK Research and Innovation, which is leading the initiative, is nearing the end of an order for 5,000 NVIDIA graphic processing units (GPUs).

However, while $130 million has been granted to the project, it is allegedly insufficient to match Sunak’s AI hub vision, suggesting that government officials may urge for extra financing at an upcoming AI safety summit in November.

It follows recent research that many businesses are struggling to implement AI owing to a lack of resources and technological challenges. An independent study of the country’s AI computing capabilities concluded in March that investment in the space is “seriously lagging” behind foreign rivals in the United States and the European Union.

At the time, there were fewer than 1,000 NVIDIA chips available for academics to train AI models on; a panel advised that the UK make at least 3,000 high-quality chips available to address immediate needs.

Related: The US-China AI-tech confrontation appears to be spreading to other countries According to S&P Global’s global AI trend report released on August 16, many companies are not ready to support AI due to a lack of processing capacity, as well as issues managing data and security concerns. Despite AI’s early days, S&P senior research analyst Nick Patience said a leader in the space will be determined by who can support AI workloads.

Buy and sell crypto in minutes with 0.20% trading fees at Bitdenex Exchange