UK unveils £600 million AI package: cyber shield, AI Security Institute boost and a sovereign chip push

The UK government has unveiled an artificial intelligence package worth more than £600 million that puts security first: AI-driven cyber defences, biosecurity, a bigger AI Security Institute and a push to reduce reliance on technology built abroad. The announcement was published on GOV.UK on 24 October, ahead of the Budget that Chancellor John Healey will present next week. The “£600m+” total is the figure used by the industry body techUK in its reaction, not an official sum.

Cyber and biological threats

The largest security lines are aimed at critical infrastructure and biological risk:

£165 million for a National AI Biosecurity Initiative, including £100 million for the AI Biosecurity Lab, plus £65 million for bio-surveillance and medical countermeasures against priority pathogens. The lab was launched a day earlier, and its funding, including up to £200 million in AI model credits from OpenAI and Anthropic, is covered in UK launches AI Biosecurity Lab with £100 million of state funding and up to £200 million from OpenAI and Anthropic.

£120 million more for the AI Security Institute, which tests new AI systems and develops technical standards.

£60 million for a National Cyber Shield that will use agentic AI to improve cyber defences, including a £25 million challenge fund, and a £70 million National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (NERV) Centre to find weaknesses across critical infrastructure and the wider economy.

Less dependence on foreign technology

AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said in the announcement: “We cannot afford to rely entirely on technology built overseas.” To that end the government is adding £60 million to the Sovereign AI Fund, which will expand into “Physical and Industrial AI” such as robotics and autonomous systems, and another £60 million for the fund’s research and development procurement scheme. A further £18 million will support a UK Advanced Chip Design Academy, with new chip-design investment in Edinburgh.

Security Minister Dan Jarvis said the investment would help the UK “stay one step ahead of those who seek to use AI to do us harm”.

Jobs, economics and local growth

The package also includes £10 million a year to study how AI will reshape jobs, £23 million over three years for the AI Economics Institute, £15 million for an AI Challenge Prize focused on health, and £30 million for local AI partnerships with mayoral authorities. A new National Cyber Security Centre AI Cyber Security Centre of Excellence is to be set up in Manchester.

Chancellor Healey said the approach was “distinctively British”, one that “doesn’t leave workers behind and defends our national interest”. techUK chief executive Julian David called it “a strong £600m+ package” that plays to UK strengths in building, adopting and securing AI. The government has not yet published the Budget documents that will confirm the allocations.