Misery for Keir Starmer as ยฃ31billion investment pulled over ‘mad’ Net Zero plan | Politics | News
Labour has been accused of stilting jobs for young people after a huge artificial intelligence company pulled a ยฃ31billion investment due to high energy costs. ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said it will only move forward with the investment to build a large data centre in northeast England once the “right conditions” are met.
The project, dubbed Stargate UK, would have seen thousands of powerful chips made for AI development in North Tyneside as part of a wider ยฃ31billion package of UK tech investment, reflecting the UK’s potential to become an “AI superpower”. In a statement, the AI firm blamed the U-turn on energy bills and regulation.
It said: “We see huge potential for the UK’s AI future. London is home to our largest international research hub, and we support the government’s ambition to be an AI leader.
“AI compute is foundational to that goal – we continue to explore Stargate UK and will move forward when the right conditions such as regulation and the cost of energy enable long-term infrastructure investment.”
Even before the Iran war, Britainโs energy prices had long been much higher than in the US. The BBC understands the concerns around regulations related to whether AI firms would be allowed to train their systems using copyrighted material, which would have required a change in the law.
Conservative Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith stated that Labour has triggered job losses, and blamed Energy Secretary Ed Miliband for the huge turnaround.
He told the Mail: “Ed Miliband’s suicidal energy policy has just cost us another huge investment. The UK has top AI talent and labs but ruinously high energy costs because of Labour’s mad Net Zero agenda. If Labour let us fall behind on AI, Britain will lose even more jobs for young people.”
Stargate UK would have been based at Cobalt Park, North Tyneside, as part of the Government’s “AI Growth Zone” in the North East.
When announcing the project in September, OpenAI said it would help strengthen the UK’s “sovereign compute capabilities” and boost its native AI development.
“This will help power the UK’s future economy, boost its global competitiveness and deliver on the country’s national AI Opportunities Action Plan,” the company said.
