Microsoft, OpenAI herald Trump’s UK visit with pledges

Core Insights - Major American companies, including Microsoft and OpenAI, are committing over £31 billion ($42.3 billion) to technology infrastructure in the UK, coinciding with President Trump's visit [2][3] - The UK government is facilitating this investment by fast-tracking planning approvals for data centers and creating an AI Growth Zone to stimulate job creation [3][4] Company Investments - Microsoft plans to invest $30 billion over four years in AI infrastructure in the UK, marking its largest financial commitment to the country [6] - OpenAI is central to a $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure project, with plans to utilize up to 31,000 Nvidia Blackwell semiconductors in the UK [5][6] - Nvidia is investing £11 billion in AI data centers in the UK, aiming to deploy 120,000 AI accelerator chips by 2026 [6] - CoreWeave is set to invest £1.5 billion in a renewable energy-powered data center in the UK, in addition to its existing £1 billion investment [6] - Salesforce is extending its investment in the UK by an additional $2 billion through 2030, building on a previous $4 billion commitment [6] - Alphabet Inc.'s Google plans to invest £5 billion over two years, including a new data center in Hertfordshire [6] - BlackRock is investing £500 million into data centers in the UK [6] Industry Trends - The UK is joining a global trend towards building local artificial intelligence infrastructure, referred to as sovereign AI, which is seen as crucial for future growth by companies like Nvidia [7][8] - Nvidia's CEO has indicated that the sovereign AI initiative could lead to up to $4 trillion in AI spending by the end of the decade [8]