Liz Kendall talks up work with ‘middle power nations’ on sovereign tech

In a speech at the Royal United Services Institute, UK technology secretary Liz Kendall discussed technological disruption and Britain’s role in the tech economy.

“Technology is disrupting our economies and societies in ways that were unimaginable a few years ago,” she said.

Kendall referenced geopolitical rivalry, which she said was driving nation-state investments in technology. “Why has China poured billions into the semiconductor industry? To catch up. Why does the US invest billions in drones and autonomous warfare? To stay ahead,” she said.

“When rival countries glimpse a new technology, they rush to build it first, so they lay claim to the future,” Kendall added.

She urged policymakers and the UK tech sector to act now to cement Britain’s place in the new technological era.

Drawing on her non-tech background, having studied history at university, Kendall spoke about how, in the past, a nation’s ability to pull ahead was determined by the size of its navy, which, as the news headlines over the past few weeks have claimed, is now largely depleted in the UK.

“Today, the defining currency is AI,” she said. “And the countries which harness AI will not only lead the race to cure diseases, discover new materials and create trillion-dollar companies, but also build far more powerful militaries.” 

Kendall believes artificial intelligence (AI) is the engine of both economic power and “hard power”.

“The future is coming at us fast – not in the next few decades, but the next few years,” she warned. With the speed of AI model development, Kendall projected that by the end of next year, AI will be able to complete in hours what would currently take software engineers weeks.

For Britain, AI sovereignty is about reducing over-dependencies and increasing resilience in key national strategic priorities

In what appears to be a shift away from US-led tech, Kendall spoke about building sovereign AI capabilities in the UK. She stressed this is not about isolation or trying to build everything alone, but about ensuring Britain is indispensable in the technologies that will define the future – a keystone in the global AI architecture rather than a bystander to decisions taken elsewhere.

“For Britain, AI sovereignty is about reducing over-dependencies and increasing resilience in key national strategic priorities. We secure greater control and greater leverage over the issues that matter most. And if you want true leverage for your country, you need to be a keystone in the global tech architecture – an indispensable partner,” she said.

On 16 April, the government opened applications to the Sovereign AI Fund, which is offering grants of between £1m and £9m to fund the creation of strategic AI assets and is designed to help the UK’s most promising AI startups grow, scale and succeed in Britain. The programme is initially focusing on high-value AI datasets and autonomous or automated laboratory infrastructure.

The UK’s Sovereign AI focus areas cover compute efficiency and sovereign architecture, next-generation AI labs, health and life sciences, AI for scientific discovery, and AI trust, integrity and assurance. Companies can also apply for funding if they are considered relevant to defence and national security.

Along with backing UK AI startups through the Sovereign AI Fund, Kendall said Britain needs to work more closely with international partners, especially “so-called middle power nations”. 

Discussing how the country is working with allies to develop sovereign capabilities and increase its leverage, Kendall spoke about the Strategic Science and Technology Partnership with Germany, which includes a £6m joint quantum project; the Entente Cordiale with France; the Growth and Innovation Partnership with Canada, which includes joint work on AI security; and the Digital Partnership with Japan.

“We recently invited foreign ministers from countries including Australia, Canada and the Republic of Korea to discuss the most pressing geo-economic challenges of our age, including technology,” she said. “We are once again asserting the importance of our international alliances because we know we can achieve more together than we can do alone.”

To strengthen the UK’s position in the race to deliver sovereign AI capabilities for the future, Kendall announced that the UK government will develop a UK AI hardware plan to secure Britain’s capability in chips and the semiconductor technologies that underpin the full AI hardware stack.