An American semiconductor giant has unveiled plans to invest £2bn in Britain to build new AI supercomputers.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a rival to Nvidia, said on Monday it would invest in a string of UK-based programmes in the next five years, including a project to build a supercomputer aimed at nuclear fusion.
The US-listed business makes the graphics chips driving the world’s AI boom and is worth £570bn.
Lisa Su, the chief executive of AMD, said the company planned to “expand access to the compute infrastructure needed to advance sovereign AI” in Britain.
AMD’s investment will include spending on a new supercomputer at the University of Cambridge, called Zenith.
It will also focus on developing a government-backed computer with the UK Atomic Energy Authority focused on nuclear research.
The computer, known as Sunrise, is being built to advance research into nuclear fusion. This is technology based on harnessing the sort of reactions that take place at the centre of the sun to provide almost limitless clean energy.
It will be the most powerful supercomputer in the world dedicated to fusion power.
AMD has long been Nvidia’s main rival in developing graphics chip technology. Initially aimed at gaming PCs, these chips have been adopted by the AI industry to develop and deploy new technologies such as ChatGPT.