Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of recent high-value acquisitions involving UK AI companies; and what policies they are pursuing to support domestic AI innovation, investment and the scaling of high-growth firms.

The UK has a strong track record of high‑growth AI firms. This Government is taking a comprehensive approach to supporting our thriving AI ecosystem – ensuring that we back innovators with the data, compute, and talent they need to succeed.

Our AI Research Resource is providing free compute to British researchers and startups so that they can train new AI models and deliver scientific breakthroughs. We have established five new AI Growth Zones across the UK to deliver large, cutting-edge datacentre capacity. We are training the next generation of experts through Spärck AI Scholarships and the Global Talent taskforce, and we are upskilling 10 million workers in essential AI skills by 2030. Our Sovereign AI Unit, backed by £500 million, will support high-potential start-ups to start and scale, and our £100 million Advance Market Commitments will help UK AI hardware start‑ups compete globally.