This year’s London Tech Week unfolded at Olympia London as a high-octane gathering of innovation, investment, and policy ambition. With over 45,000 attendees, 400+ speakers, and 70+ events, the festival positioned London as Europe’s innovation nerve centre.
🔹 Starmer & Huang Set the Tone
Prime Minister Keir Starmer formally opened the summit, pledging £1 billion toward AI infrastructure, launching the new AI-powered planning assistant “Extract” (built with Google Gemini), and unveiling TechFirst, a £187 million school AI-skills program, as part of a broader aim to upskill 7.5 million workers by 2030.
He reassured concerned citizens that AI “makes us more human,” promising better jobs, improved public services, and widely shared prosperity.
Standing alongside Starmer, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang proclaimed the UK had “abundance” in AI research and promised significant investment in the ecosystem, including a new AI lab and a Sovereign AI Industry Forum with BAE Systems, BT, and Standard Chartered.
🔹 Infrastructure & Private Sector Commitments
- Nvidia will deploy 10,000 Blackwell GPUs via cloud provider Nscale and 4,000 GPUs at Nebius, cementing a stronger compute backbone.
- Liquidity in London announced a £1.5 billion investment, emphasizing London’s attractiveness as a tech hub.
- Discussions pivoted to the need for faster planning approval, power grid modernization, and streamlined regulation to unlock private capital for digital infrastructure.
🔹 Enterprise-Scale AI Programmes
Microsoft revealed a collaboration with Barclays to deploy 100,000 Copilot AI agents across industries. Meanwhile, Dell, AWS, AstraZeneca, and others demonstrated real-world AI applications in sectors like healthcare, cybersecurity, and defence.
🔹 Focus on Ethics, Equity & Global Partnerships
Panels addressed the ethical implications of AI, environmental concerns, open-source innovation, and Europe’s global competitiveness. Notable speakers like Red Bull’s Christian Horner shared how AI is revolutionizing F1 strategy, while Accenture warned of an increasing AI investment divide between London and regional cities like Glasgow, Leeds, and Liverpool.
🔹 Startups, Talent & Royce Momentum
The Tech Nation Report, released during the week, surveyed over 1,000 founders, highlighting growth hurdles and key opportunities in UK tech. And the launch of the Rising Stars competition—offering a record £3 million funding pool—placed a spotlight on early-stage firms seeking national and global impact.