Powering the Next Wave: Frontier Compute and the Future of UK AI Hardware

This event is part of techUK's Frontier Compute focus. Find out more here.

The UK is increasingly treating compute as a core layer of national infrastructure. The AI Opportunities Action Plan, the AI Growth Zones and the AI Hardware Plan share the aim of making Britain a leading place to build and scale AI hardware and infrastructure. But the Government's forecast that the UK will need at least 6GW of AI-capable data centres by 2030 raises serious questions over whether the energy grid will be ready to support this growth in demand. It is this tension that prompted the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee's recent inquiry into whether novel computing paradigms could offer a solution to rising energy demands.

Frontier compute, from photonics and neuromorphic chips to quantum and biological computing paradigms, offers part of the answer. Building on techUK's latest report Photonics: A Vision for UK Leadership in Light-Based Technologies report and our wider Frontier Compute focus, this half-day event brings frontier compute developers, policymakers and the energy sector into one room to ask how the UK can address the tension between the UK's AI ambitions and a rapidly transforming energy sector.

Agenda