Britain is betting on AI. Now it needs the network that will run it
The UK is experiencing a watershed AI moment, and the momentum is real. British AI startups raised £6 billion in venture capital last year, and in just the first three months of 2026 they have already raised more than half that figure again.
The Government's recently launched Sovereign AI Unit, backed by a £500 million public investment, is designed to accelerate this momentum by giving the UK's most promising AI companies direct access to computing power, R&D support and government procurement opportunities.
The ambitions are right. The UK has genuine strengths in AI research, a world-class university sector and a growing startup ecosystem attracting serious global capital.
But there is a fundamental question these ambitions raise, one the telecoms industry needs to put firmly on the table: you cannot scale AI without the connectivity infrastructure to support it.
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