A Sovereign AI Open Letter for the United Kingdom
Commit £20B+ over the next five years through public investment, procurement guarantees, and co-investment to secure domestic AI compute, power, data-centre capacity, and network infrastructure for government, defence, academia, and strategic industry.
Use planning reform, energy policy, procurement, and long-term contracts to make the UK a competitive home for testing, training and deploying safe and secure strategic AI systems.
Support UK-led model development in cyber, defence, scientific discovery, and critical public services where strategic dependence would be unacceptable. Create secure, governed data environments and national data trusts that allow government, defence, and the NHS to harness proprietary British datasets for training these models, with strict privacy safeguards, mandatory audit trails, and interoperability standards.
No mission-critical public service or critical national infrastructure should depend on a single model, provider, or cloud stack. Independent testing, evaluation and monitoring of AI models is essential to enable safe, secure and trusted AI adoption. Mandate tested fallback arrangements, independent alternatives, and human-in-the-loop control for all high-consequence AI systems.
Create a fast-track sovereign AI procurement route for urgent national priorities with clear evidence thresholds, proper audit trails, post-award transparency, and ongoing assurance monitoring.
Identify the areas of the AI value chain where the UK can become world-leading, then align infrastructure, procurement, research, regulation, and investment behind them.
Position Britain as the trusted AI partner of choice for allies seeking secure alternatives to concentrated dependence. Build shared infrastructure, common standards, and interoperable systems with like-minded nations.
Establish a cross-party 10-year Sovereign AI Strategy with clear objectives, annual accountability, and long-term funding certainty. Treat AI as strategic national infrastructure.
We call on the Government to publish, within 90 days, a Sovereign AI Capability Plan covering compute, procurement, resilience, strategic sectors, and long-term funding.
David Sully
CEO at Advai
Dr Edward Sharkey
Partner, Global head of AI and Solutions at Baringa
Colin Bannon
CTO at BT
Tom Humphreys
CEO at Era4
Matt Harris
Managing Director, UK, Ireland, Middle East, and Africa at HPE
Brendan Mooney
CEO at Kainos
Gareth Workman
Chief AI Officer at Kainos
Prof. Simon Harwood
Strategy and Technology Director at Leonardo UK
Stephanie Meehan
Partner at Oaklin Consulting
Amanda Grant
Chief of Strategic Ventures (Data & AI) at OneAdvanced
Alwin Magimay
Global Head of AI at PA Consulting
Craig Wilson
UK CEO at Sopra Steria
Ben Jarvis
Chief Technology Officer at Telefonica Tech UK
Tom Samuel & Cliff Green
Managing Partners at Xcelo
AI will shape our economy, our security and our public services. Britain needs the capability to choose where it runs, where its data sits and who controls it.
We have long been advocating that sovereign AI is the safest, most secure way for UK organisations to leverage the transformative power of AI in their flow of work. Organisations in highly regulated and essential service sectors of the UK need AI that is not only powerful, but secure, trusted and designed around the realities of the environments in which it will operate which is why we are supporting this open letter.
We build and run AI for organisations in critical, regulated industries — where the question isn't whether the model is clever, but whether the decision it supported is justifiable and can be evidenced in front of a regulator or a court. Sovereign capability is what makes AI viable for those sensitive and critical use cases, and the UK needs to build and invest in it now if British businesses and public institutions are to get the full value of the technology.
Defence cannot afford to move slowly, and Britain cannot afford strategic dependency in the technologies that increasingly underpin military advantage. Sovereign compute, data and models give the UK the resilience and freedom of action to turn AI into capability at mission speed. This letter puts urgency, investment and accountability behind that ambition.
At Sopra Steria we are determined to help ensure the UK remains at the forefront of AI, underpinned by sovereignty, resilience and a commitment to ethical and responsible use. Establishing a clear roadmap for AI sovereignty and how it can be harnessed as a strategic national asset will be vital to shaping Britain's global position for decades to come.
For regulated industries such as critical energy infrastructure , thoughtfully applied sovereign AI is paramount to the UKs energy ambitions.
The UK must treat AI as what it is: Critical National Infrastructure. Without sovereign capability in the systems that matter most, we risk ceding our economic and strategic future to others.
Oaklin Consulting has signed because the letter's principles that seek to establish a stable, world class and trusted AI capability are directly relevant to the sectors we advise. Being part of the founding coalition will allow Oaklin to help shape the how this capability will be realised for the betterment of our shared national interest.
The Government needs to continue to champion sovereign AI infrastructure and capacity especially given the importance to our long-term security and prosperity. At Era4 we are a UK owned and operated AI infrastructure company and stand ready to help the Government deliver this future.