But Keegan McBride, senior policy advisor in emerging technology and geopolitics at the Tony Blair Institute, said the U.K. has little choice as only the U.S. or China were able to provide it with the AI infrastructure it needed to compete. “For the U.K. and for many other countries that want to access frontier AI capabilities, the United States represents the best option,” he said.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, wants to sell American AI “packages” to its allies, pitching them as a form of AI sovereignity. “We are committed to finding a way to enable America’s private companies to meet your national technological needs,” White House tech policy chief Michael Kratsios told APEC members at a conference in South Korea this August.
Another prize for U.S. tech companies is large government contracts. Britain’s defense department announced a £400 million deal with Google Cloud last week, while Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Cloud signed separate partnership agreements with the U.K. government earlier this year.
Just don’t mention rules
The U.S.-U.K. tech pact is expected to avoid the thornier issue of online regulation, but it is something the White House has pressured the U.K. government on throughout trade negotiations. Starmer also faces domestic pressure from Nigel Farage, leader of the populist and poll-topping Reform UK party, who compared Britain’s free speech laws to North Korea in the U.S. Congress this month.
Starmer has repeatedly defended Britain’s Online Safety Act, including in front of Trump at his Scottish Turnberry resort in August, while Trump has also attacked the Digital Services Tax and competition regulations.
McBride said: “There is a growing number of regulatory concerns on the side of the United States, particularly regarding censorship and free speech, that could disrupt tech relations between the two countries.”
One person briefed on the agenda for Trump’s visit said: “There are three regulatory pieces that the U.S. is really concerned about in Europe right now. They’re going to be looking … to see some sort of support from the U.K.”
They listed the Digital Services Tax, which the government has repeatedly ruled out ditching, the EU’s Digital Markets Act, and the CSDD (an EU supply chain disclosure reporting standard). “There are people inside the White House that are very set on expanding the U.S.-U.K. relationship as a means to counterbalance the EU, and I think that’s a big part of this trip.”