This week, @Keir_Starmer, @RachelReevesMP, @leicesterliz and I have announced a major next step for the UKโs AI trajectory ๐ฌ๐ง๐
*๐๐๐ข๐ง๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐๐ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ฉ๐ฌ*
A bumper ยฃ1bn+ UK AI Hardware Plan
โ ยฃ750m for a national AI supercomputer, buying British AI chips
โ A major AMD commitment to UK AI compute startup research (thank you, @LisaSu)
โ ยฃ45m in AI chip skills funding, inc a ramp up of over 500+ brand new AI chip PhDsย
โ @BritishBBank backing a brand new early-stage UK hardware fund with ยฃ150m, @Playground_VC, led by ex-Intel CEO @PGelsinger
โ Expanded Scaling Inference Lab, so UK compute startups can get rapid validation
*๐๐๐๐ก๐ข๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ฏ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ*
๐๐ฝ ๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด๐ผ ๐ด๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ง๐: Nobel winner @baselinescene will chair a prize that rewards examples of pro-worker adoption
๐๐ฝ ๐ต๐๐ ๐ก ๐ท๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ท๐๐ก๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐ก๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ง๐: @RIBA and @SciTechgovuk will collaborate to reward beautiful and well-designed datacentres
๐๐ฝ ๐ด๐ผ ๐ธ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐ก๐ข๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ข๐๐โ: Nobel winner @baselinescene to chair brand new institute, so British workers are first to be supported robustly through AIโs economic impact, with data from 20 large companies
๐๐ฝ ๐ด๐ผ ๐ด๐ ๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐ข๐: @SciTechgovuk and @bcs will develop robust guidance to grow the UK AI assurance sector
๐๐ฝ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐๐๐๐๐ก: OS builder fund, to give 160k+ GPU hours to winners of OS hackathon; OS mentoring scheme to plug OS talent into govt builders; OS Dev Board, bringing 10 young OS developers into Govt AI strategy process
*๐๐จ๐๐ค๐๐ญ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐ ๐ฃ๐จ๐๐ฌ*
๐ค Skills Boost update: 1.7m courses delivered
๐ค Tech First Update: 100k+ young people backed already, 900 scholarss, 2k people on track for sustained AI roles
๐ค AI Early Careers Jobs Alliance: employers + trade unions + young people + govt fundamentally redesigning paths into jobs
๐ค North East Jobs Pilot: AI Growth Zone will support young people not in education, employment, training to get agentic AI jobs, backed by @Accenture, @Microsoft, @sageuk
๐ค Tech First North West Pilot: 5 areas to pilot support for young people at risk of leaving school after GCSEs, getting them onto free AI bootcamps
*๐๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ง๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ ๐จ๐ง ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ก ๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐๐ฎ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ*
โฐ๏ธ AI Sector Champion Plans: Major plans to drive adoption, with ยฃ200m to back first set of ideas
โฐ๏ธ AI Growth Lab: an advisory lab launched to give adopters clear, practical info on regulation
โฐ๏ธ Major robotics adoption regulatory innovation initiative
โฐ๏ธ Spรคrck update: expanded ยฃ1m scholarship, 50 more PhDs put into AI placements to drive adoption
*๐๐จ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ; ๐ข๐ง๐ฏ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฃ๐จ๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ๐๐๐ฒ, ๐ญ๐จ๐จ*
โก๏ธ ยฃ2bn from @AMD in UK AI infra
โก๏ธ @nebiusai investing ยฃ1.7bn with three major @nvidia deployments
โก๏ธ Major new MoU with @Cisco to support Barnsley use AI in aid of local public servants and to help local NHS
โก๏ธ Major new MoU with @ElevenLabs to support access for those with visual impairments and to secure AI
โก๏ธ Major new MoU with @synthesiaIO to ramp up AI skills and spread opportunity
โก๏ธ @OQC_Tech raising ยฃ260m, backed by largest @BritishBBank investment to date
โก๏ธ @reflection_a expanding into UK, hiring 100+ employees within 12 months, and 1,000 within 3 years (welcome @MishaLaskin)
โก๏ธ @Replit announcing UK office opening
โก๏ธ @amazon announcing ยฃ1bn investment in Midlands, creating 2,800 jobs
โก๏ธ @Arkdatacentres investing ยฃ807m to expand existing campus
โก๏ธ @n8n_io investing in further 200 AI jobs over next 3 years, thanks @JanOberhauser
โก๏ธ @ErosUniverse_, leading Bollywood distributor, investing ยฃ265m and backing 3,000 jobs in AI and creative sectors
โก๏ธ @ARLQ_AI investing ยฃ45m for UK R&D
โก๏ธ @CocoRobotics announcing UK debut with major Deliveroo partnership
โก๏ธ Midlands Mindforge go live to invest in Midlands firms
This is a tremendous opportunity for Britain. We have one of the best space sectors in the world: Space Forge et al. We have territories to suit any kind of orbit. We should propose to SpaceX that we collaborate on 2+ launch sites, e.g. one in the Shetlands and one on Ascension.
Dear David Attenborough,
Congratulations on reaching your 100th lap around the sun, young man!
Thank you for sharing the wonders of our world with such care and curiosity.
Hereโs to many more years, slow and steady wins the race!
With admiration,
Jonathan the Tortoise
No one wants to hear it but you will have to *work* on everything that is worth having in life.
Your career, your relationships, your health - whatever it is...
So if you don't want to work for it, be prepared to be very disappointed in the quality of everything you get.
.@POTUS: "Honoring the British King might seem an ironic beginning to our celebration of 250 years of American independence โ but in fact, no tribute could be more appropriate. Long before Americans had a nation or Constitution, we first had a culture, a character, and a creed. Before we ever proclaimed our independence, Americans carried within us the rarest of gifts: moral courage, and it came from a small but mighty kingdom from across the sea."
Only one chance in this lifetimeโฆ
Like watching sunset at the beach from the most foreign seat in the cosmos, I couldnโt resist a cell phone video of Earthset. You can hear the shutter on the Nikon as @Astro_Christina is hammering away on 3-shot brackets and capturing those exceptional Earthset photos through the 400mm lens. @AstroVicGlover was in window 3 watching with @Astro_Jeremy next to him.
I could barely see the Moon through the docking hatch window but the iPhone was the perfect size to catch the viewโฆthis is uncropped, uncut with 8x zoom which is quite comparable to the view of the human eye. Enjoy.
Any time the news tells you the British government has spent X billions on something absurd, just mentally divide that number by 3, and youโve got a good estimate on how many literal Moon missions they could have paid for.
Liftoff.
The Artemis II mission launched from @NASAKennedy at 6:35pm ET (2235 UTC), propelling four astronauts on a journey around the Moon.
Artemis II will pave the way for future Moon landings, as well as the next giant leap โ astronauts on Mars.
๐ฌ๐ง New factories, new jobs, major investments and huge contract wins - March's UK manufacturing highlights:
๐น Leonardo was awarded a ยฃ1 billion contract to build 23 new medium helicopters (NMH) for the MoD at its Yeovil factory, securing the site's future and more than 3,000 jobs.
๐น Rolls-Royce announced plans to invest ยฃ21.3m to double the capacity of its Advanced Blade Casting Facility in Rotherham where some of the worldโs most advanced turbine blades are manufactured.
๐น Expected to create 500 jobs, Denmark's Vestas announced plans to build a new ยฃ216m nacelle and hub manufacturing plant in Scotland.
๐น Lockheed Martin is set to build a new ยฃ85m satellite manufacturing plant in the UK. The US aerospace giant is in contention for a major UK contract that is due to be awarded later this year, and if successful, plans to build the assembly plant at County Durham's NETPark site, creating at least 500 jobs.
๐น HMS Active, the second of class, entered the water at Rosyth - the first time in the Type 31 programme that the entire float-off operation was completed at Babcock International Group's own facility. The ยฃ1.25 billion contract to build five Type 31 frigates for the Royal Navy supports more than 2,500 jobs across the UK.
๐น Rotherham-based Castings Technology, the UKโs only structural titanium foundry (and Europeโs largest), secured defence contracts worth more than ยฃ9 million from a leading UK manufacturer.
๐น GE Aerospace announced plans to invest more than โฌ110m, and create over 1,000 new jobs, across its UK and mainland European manufacturing sites this year.
๐น Airbus and Rolls-Royce secured a multi-billion pound order from US carrier Atlas Air for 20 A350F freighter aircraft, powered by 40 Derby-built Trent XWB-97 engines.
๐น British Steel is ramping up production at its Scunthorpe plant after securing one of its largest ever export orders โ a ยฃ70m contract for port redevelopments in Nigeria.
๐น Stellantis announced plans to invest an additional ยฃ50m at its Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire. The extra investment will fund a new assembly line to build battery-electric variants of the Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro and related models from next year.
To return Americans to the Moon, NASA is shifting to an iterative, execution-focused approach โ just as we did duringย Apollo.ย
We areย standardizingย rocket architecture, embedding NASAย expertiseย across industry, and increasing launchย cadenceย toย supportย sustained lunar operations.ย ย
Weย are sendingย a demand signal for crewed missions beyond Artemis V, with at least two providers capable of bringing astronauts to the surface every 6 months.ย
The goal is not just to reach theย Moon, but to stay.ย
America will never give up theย Moon again.
๐ฌ๐งMADE IN BRITAIN: Lockheed Martin is set to build a new ยฃ85 million satellite manufacturing plant in the UK.
The US aerospace giant is in contention for a major UK contract that is due to be awarded later this year, and if successful, plans to build the assembly plant at County Durham's NETPark site, creating at least 500 jobs.
We need your help to #SaveDenby!
We are sad to share that we may be forced to close and a British institution could be lost.
We need your help:
1. Share this post
2. Sign the government petition
3. Buy Denby
4. Visit us at the Pottery Village
Read more: https://t.co/g17lHz2ETx
As a Bishop, I cannot stay silent. I have today drafted and sent an open letter to His Majesty King Charles III, the text of which reads as follows:
To:
His Majesty, Charles III,
King of the United Kingdom and the Realms,
Supreme Governor of the Church of England,
Bearer of the ancient title Defender of the Faith.
Your Majesty,
I write to you neither as a politician nor as a commentator, but as one of your loyal subjects who, as a bishop of Christโs Church, cannot remain silent while the Christian foundations of this kingdom are steadily dismantled.
Sir, there are moments in the life of a nation when silence becomes a form of betrayal. If I refused to speak to Your Majesty now, this would be such a moment.
For more than a thousand years the Crown of this realm has stood in solemn covenant with the Christian faith.
The laws of this land were shaped by it.
The liberties of our people were nurtured by it.
The conscience of our civilisation was formed by it.
From the abbeys of medieval England to the parish churches of our villages, from the preaching of the Reformers to the missionary zeal that carried the Gospel to the ends of the earth, the Christian faith has not merely influenced Britain โ it has defined her.
Yet today that inheritance is being quietly but deliberately eroded. Across the institutions of this nation there is a growing hostility toward the faith that built them.
Christian belief is mocked in the public square. Christian morality is dismissed as intolerance. Christian institutions are pressured to surrender doctrine in order to conform to the ideology of the age.
Within the very Church that bears the name of England, voices have arisen that appear more eager to mirror the spirit of the age than to proclaim the eternal truth of the Gospel.
Meanwhile, beyond the walls of our churches, powerful political movements openly speak of removing Christianity from its historic place within the life of this nation.
What would once have been whispered is now proclaimed openly: that Britain must become a post-Christian state.
It is in this context that I write to you, Your Majesty. For the British Crown does not stand apart from this crisis.
The Sovereign of this realm bears a title that is not merely historic but sacred in its origin and meaning: Defender of the Faith. Those words are not decorative. They are a charge.
They speak of a monarch whose duty is not merely to preside over the ceremonies of the Church, but to stand as a guardian of the Christian inheritance of the nation.
Yet many among your subjects now ask, with increasing anxiety: โWho will defend that inheritance today?โ
They see a nation drifting from its foundations. And they ask whether the Crown will remain silent while that inheritance is dismantled.
Your Majesty, may I be so bold as to observe that your coronation oath was not a poetic formality. It was a solemn vow made before Almighty God to maintain and preserve the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law.
Those words bind the conscience of the sovereign. They remind the Crown that its authority is not merely constitutional but moral. The monarch is not merely a symbol of national continuity, but a custodian of the spiritual inheritance that shaped this realm.
History records moments when kings and emperors were confronted by the Church and reminded that their authority was accountable before God. In the fourth century Ambrose of Milan stood before the Emperor Theodosius I and reminded him that even the ruler of an empire must bow before the moral law of Christ.
That tradition of prophetic witness has never disappeared. Nor should it. For when rulers forget the foundations upon which their authority rests, the Church must speak โ not with hostility, but with holy clarity.
And so, I write to say this, Your Majesty: The Christian character of this nation is under profound and accelerating assault.
If the Crown does not stand visibly and courageously in defence of that inheritance, history will record that the guardians of Britainโs institutions watched in silence as the foundations were removed.
The issue before us is not nostalgia. It is civilisation. Remove Christianity from the story of Britain and you do not create a neutral society โ you create a moral vacuum. And history teaches us that moral vacuums are never left empty for long.
Your Majesty now stands at a crossroads that few monarchs in modern history have faced.
For the erosion of Britainโs Christian inheritance will not ultimately be judged by speeches made in Parliament or debates in the press. It will be judged by whether those entrusted with the guardianship of our ancient institutions chose to defend them โ or merely preside over their quiet surrender.
You may preside over the quiet dissolution of Britainโs Christian identity. Or you may rise to the ancient responsibility entrusted to the Crown and speak with clarity about the faith that built this kingdom. The first path requires little courage. The second will require a great deal. But it is the path that history honours.
Your Majestyโs subjects are not asking for religious coercion. They are asking for leadership. They are asking that the sovereign who bears the title Defender of the Faith remember what that title means.
They are asking that the Crown hear the growing cry of anguish from Christians across this land who feel that the spiritual inheritance of their nation is being surrendered without resistance. And they are asking whether the Crown will stand with them.
For the faith that shaped Britain is not merely a cultural ornament. It is the wellspring from which our laws, our liberties, and our moral imagination have flowed. If it is cast aside, the nation will discover โ too late โ that it has severed itself from the very roots that sustained it.
Your Majesty, to many the Crown is a symbol of authority. But before God it is also a symbol of stewardship. And stewardship carries with it the duty to defend what has been entrusted.
May Almighty God grant Your Majesty the wisdom to discern this hour, and the courage to fulfil the sacred duty entrusted to the Crown.
Yours faithfully,
Bishop Ceirion H. Dewar FSHC
Missionary Bishop
Diocese of Providence
Confessing Anglican Church
@PhilHs10@RevBrettMurphy@revwickland@BishopRobert1@GBNews@TalkTV@danwootton@Jacob_Rees_Mogg@LozzaFox@BackBrexitBen@RupertLowe10@KemiBadenoch@JohnCleese
Today, I launch The British Crรฆft Prize.
A new ยฃ60,000 national award for maverick and misfit
makers, technologists, designers, and engineers.
Seeking inventions that fuse the deep wisdom of
heritage crafts of the past with cutting-edge
technologies of the future.
๐งต๐