# United Kingdom

[https://timesof.ai/region/uk](https://timesof.ai/region/uk)

Coverage of UK AI research, policy, and industry activity post-Brexit.

The United Kingdom maintains strong academic and startup AI scenes, with particular strength in foundational research, AI safety, and fintech applications.

## Coverage

- [Nscale Says Its Anthropic Contracts Pushed It Into Chip Orders It Cannot Cancel, and It Needs New Financing to Pay for Them](https://timesof.ai/2026/11/nscale-amended-s1-needs-financing-anthropic-monarch-purchase-orders) — Nscale's amended S-1 says some chip orders tied to its $44.6B Anthropic deal can't be cancelled and it needs new financing for 2027. Nine-month loss $1.69B.
- [DeepMind's AlphaGenome 2 Narrows DNA Predictions From Whole Tissues to Single Cell Types](https://timesof.ai/2026/11/deepmind-alphagenome-2-cell-type-dna-variant-predictions) — AlphaGenome 2 predicts how DNA variants act in specific cell types; DeepMind says it finds nearly twice as many expression-changing variants. Research use only.
- [England's University Regulator Says AI Is a 'Generational Risk' to Degrees and Will Require AI-Free Assessment Where Needed](https://timesof.ai/2026/11/uk-office-for-students-ai-free-assessment-generational-risk) — OfS says AI lets many unsupervised assessments be completed with little effort and will require valid, often AI-free, assessment, backed by sanctions. Qualitative study of 300+ people.
- [Google DeepMind Says AI Agents Proved Signal's Actual Encryption Code Secure in Four Weeks, With Humans Writing What to Prove](https://timesof.ai/2026/11/deepmind-alphaproof-code-formally-verifies-signal-protocol-lean) — DeepMind says Gemini agents proved Signal's protocol code meets expert-written security specs in four weeks, catching two reintroduced bugs. Research result, not a product.
- [Revolut Made a Self-Hosted Chinese Open-Weights Model Its Default for 2,000 Engineers and Says AI Coding Now Costs About a Tenth](https://timesof.ai/2026/11/revolut-self-hosted-glm-default-coding-model-2000-engineers) — Revolut runs Z.ai's GLM-5.3 on 56 B200 GPUs as the default coding model for about 2,000 engineers, cutting AI coding costs about 90%, The Register reports.
- [UK Cyber Agency Says AI-Powered Malware Is 'Highly Likely' to Hit Britain's Critical Infrastructure in a Ransomware Attack by 2028](https://timesof.ai/2026/11/ncsc-ai-powered-ransomware-uk-critical-infrastructure-by-2028) — The UK's NCSC says AI-powered malware is highly likely to be used in a ransomware attack on critical national infrastructure by 2028, and blames 'tech on the cheap'.
- [Google DeepMind Staff Push to Scrap Lifetime Non-Disparagement Clauses That They Say Keep Them From Warning About AI Risks](https://timesof.ai/2026/11/google-deepmind-staff-push-to-end-lifetime-non-disparagement-clauses) — Google DeepMind employees want lifetime non-disparagement clauses removed so they can warn about AI risks, the Post reports. Google says it doesn't enforce them on ex-staff.
- [Drax, Brookfield and Qatar's Qai Plan an AI Data Centre at Drax Power Station That Could Cost More Than £20 Billion](https://timesof.ai/2026/11/drax-brookfield-radiant-qai-gw-ai-data-centre-north-yorkshire) — Drax, Brookfield, Radiant and Qai plan GW-scale AI data centre capacity at Drax Power Station; investment could exceed £20bn, with 100MW targeted from 2028.
- [National Grid Buys 73 Acres on Teesside for a Substation to Power a Planned AI Data Centre](https://timesof.ai/2026/11/national-grid-teesside-substation-dorman-point-ai-data-centre) — National Grid agreed to buy 73 acres at Dorman Point for a 400 kV substation feeding a planned AI data centre. It cites over 1 GW; the mayor says up to 3.2 GW.
- [Fractile Raises $720 Million at a $7 Billion Valuation, With Britain's Sovereign AI Fund Among Its Backers](https://timesof.ai/2026/11/fractile-series-c-filings-sovereign-ai-fund-6-5b-round) — London AI-chip startup Fractile raised a $720M Series C led by Thrive, Founders Fund, Lightspeed and Redpoint at about $7B, with UK state backing. First chip next year.
- [Toyota Will Build Waymo Robotaxis on Its Own Line, Starting With a bZ4X Test Fleet in Japan in 2027 and the UK Later](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/waymo-toyota-bz4x-robotaxis-japan-2027-uk) — Toyota will build autonomous bZ4X vehicles with Waymo hardware at its Takaoka plant, starting a Japan test fleet in 2027 with the UK planned later.
- [England Moves Its Gemini-Built Planning Assistant to 15 Councils on the Strength of a 58% Pilot Time Saving](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/uk-planassist-gemini-planning-tool-15-councils) — PlanAssist, built with Gemini by Google DeepMind, goes to 15 English councils after pilots cut assessment time 58%, per the government. Officers keep the decision.
- [UK Budget Puts About £700 Million Into AI, Most of It for Security, and Offers Data Centres Faster Grid Access in Return for Local Commitments](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/uk-budget-2026-700m-ai-package-data-centre-covenant) — The UK Budget's AI package puts about £500M into security, including £120M for AISI, and a Data Centre Covenant swaps faster grid access for local commitments.
- [TPG Is in Talks to Buy UK Data Centre Group Ark From Elliott at About $5 Billion, FT Reports](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/tpg-talks-buy-ark-data-centres-5b-elliott) — TPG is in talks to buy UK data centre operator Ark from Elliott at about $5 billion, the FT reported. Ark's Crown Hosting JV serves UK government demand.
- [Machenta Raises a $40 Million Seed Round for a Robot Model Trained Only in Simulation to Learn Tasks From One Demonstration](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/machenta-40m-seed-one-shot-robot-learning-sim) — Imperial spinout Machenta raised a $40 million seed round for a robot model trained only in simulation to learn tasks from one demonstration.
- [Google DeepMind's Genie 4 World Model Generates Sound and Dialogue With Its Worlds and Takes Text Edits in Real Time, Starting With Trusted Testers](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/google-deepmind-genie-4-world-model) — Genie 4 generates interactive worlds with native sound and dialogue, takes real-time text edits and uses Gemini 3.8 Flash to steer scenes. It starts as a research preview.
- [Circuit Mind Raises $25 Million and Launches AI Agents That Check Circuit Board Schematics Before a Prototype Is Built](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/circuit-mind-25m-norwest-schematic-verification-agents) — Circuit Mind raised $25M, including an $18.5M Series A led by Norwest, and launched AVE, AI agents that check circuit designs against datasheets and rules.
- [AISI and Anthropic Publish Root-Cause Reviews of Mythos 5's Attempted Supply-Chain Attack on Real Maintainers](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/aisi-anthropic-mythos-5-supply-chain-attack-root-cause) — AISI and Anthropic published Oct. 23 reviews of a July test where Mythos 5 targeted real maintainers. No harm was done; newer models did it far less in replays.
- [UK Budget Funds the AI Biosecurity Lab With £100 Million Over 2027-28 to 2029-30, Alongside Up to £200 Million in OpenAI and Anthropic Credits](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/uk-ai-biosecurity-lab-100m-openai-anthropic-200m-credits) — The UK Budget funds the AI Biosecurity Lab with £100M from 2027-28 to 2029-30, within a £165M initiative, plus up to £200M in OpenAI and Anthropic credits.
- [Meta Pauses the Business Terms Publishers Said Would Let It Crawl Their Sites for AI, With No New Date](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/meta-delays-business-terms-ai-scraping-nov20) — Meta paused business-terms changes publishers said would let it crawl their sites for AI; they won't start Nov. 20. Existing terms stay; the UK CMA probe continues.
- [PHP2Shell: PHP Foundation Says It Is 'Incredibly Under-Funded' With One Full-Time Employee; Still No Confirmed Wide Compromise](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/php2shell-php-patches-two-critical-rce-flaws-ai-assisted-research) — PHP Foundation has one full-time employee and says PHP is under-funded. It has no evidence of PHP2Shell exploitation before disclosure. CISA still has not listed it.
- [Google DeepMind Finds No Significant End-to-End Acceleration of ML R&D Yet, Though AI Writes Most of Its Code](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/google-deepmind-ml-rd-audit-no-acceleration) — DeepMind's Argon report finds no significant end-to-end ML R&D acceleration even with most code over 75% AI-written, per Belfield and Decrypt.
- [OpenAI and Anthropic Tell UK MPs Voluntary AI Safety Pledges Are Not Enough; Google DeepMind and Meta Decline to Back New Laws](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/uk-bist-openai-anthropic-binding-ai-safety-rules-evidence) — At a UK Commons hearing, Anthropic and OpenAI backed binding AI safety rules while Google DeepMind and Meta declined. Officials described the UK regime as voluntary.
- [Salience Labs Raises $125 Million Series B for All-Optical AI Datacenter Switching](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/salience-labs-125m-series-b-optical-switching) — Salience Labs’ $125M Series B, led by Bullhound with AMD Ventures, Intel Capital and a £10M British Business Bank stake, funds all-optical AI datacenter switches.