The 海角视频’s ambition to lead in artificial intelligence is no longer just a political soundbite or a strategic aspiration – it’s being backed by serious investment.
The announcement earlier this year of Culham Campus as the 海角视频’s first AI Growth Zone marked a pivotal moment for the innovation agenda. With it, the government is signalling bold intent to accelerate the country’s AI capabilities, and the scale of that commitment is clear.
A combined £600 million is being invested in AI Growth Zones, layered with wider funding commitments, including £1 billion to scale up AI compute capacity, £500 million for a sovereign AI unit, and £750 million for a new supercomputer in Edinburgh. This is much-needed infrastructure investment – but investment alone is not enough.
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We need to use the emergence of AI Growth Zones as a springboard for wider placemaking and economic renewal. This isn’t just an opportunity to position the 海角视频 globally as a destination for leading AI research, development and commercialisation; it’s an opportunity to advance regional economies, local communities, the next generation of talent, and the pace of regeneration.
But it’s also an opportunity to align the 海角视频’s innovation agenda with its sustainability goals. AI Growth Zones will require significant power to support compute-intensive workloads and high-performance data centres – but that power must be low-carbon and scalable. Without sustainable energy infrastructure embedded into these zones from the outset, we risk building innovation capacity that’s fundamentally unsustainable. Net zero, energy resilience and innovation cannot sit in silos; they must be planned and delivered together.
We now have a rare opportunity to get much of this right; not just for industry, but for the communities that surround these proposed innovation clusters. If AI Growth Zones are to fulfil their potential, the way we think about them needs to shift. This is about more than technological advancement – it’s about people, place, and the long-term prosperity of the regions of the 海角视频.
From centralised ambition to regional opportunity
The 海角视频 has long been a powerhouse of research and innovation, particularly in AI. But too often, the benefits have been concentrated in a handful of locations. AI Growth Zones offer a way to shift this narrative by bringing the innovation economy closer to the regions that need it most, and by enabling talent to thrive where it lives.
Culham Campus provides a strong foundation to build on. As the first designated AI Growth Zone, it sets the tone for what these hubs can become: well-connected, power-optimised places that serve the needs of high-growth, data-intensive businesses. Its plans for a new data centre underline the importance of infrastructure that is genuinely fit for the future.
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But Culham should be the first of many. If we want AI Growth Zones to deliver sustained impact, we must move beyond the capital and the South East. The North West, for example, is already showing all the signs of readiness, with major private investment in motion and strong industry partnerships forming.
The North West advantage
Take Stockport, for example, where Kao Data is planning a £350 million AI-ready data centre; or Liverpool, where tech services giant Kyndryl is creating 1,000 new jobs through the creation of its new base at the Royal Liver Building. These are not isolated investments; they represent the confidence global businesses have in the potential of the region.
Pair this with the North West’s existing, world-leading academic ecosystems, its track record in advanced manufacturing and life sciences, and the growing concentration of digital talent, and it becomes clear that this region is primed for a strategic AI Growth Zone designation.
But location is only part of the equation. What matters even more is the model.
Avoiding the pitfalls of the past
We’ve seen this before. Enterprise Zones, despite the best intentions, often fell short of their promise, delivering short-term incentives without long-term vision. AI Growth Zones cannot follow the same path. Their success will depend on deliberate, inclusive planning that balances national ambition with regional strengths.
That means aligning infrastructure with the needs of local economies. It means making sure that skills provision is responsive and co-designed with employers. And it means integrating these zones into the broader fabric of place, so they aren’t gated tech enclaves, but open, connected parts of the communities they serve.
It also means recognising that the success of these zones depends on the availability of skills, training, and education pipelines that are deeply embedded in local communities. AI Growth Zones should be closely tied to initiatives like the government’s national skills drive, helping to unlock opportunity for young people and ensuring local talent can access and shape the jobs of the future.
More than a mission: an imperative
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The promise of AI is vast. But if we limit our view of AI Growth Zones to their technical capability alone, we’ll miss the bigger picture. These zones have the power to drive productivity, raise living standards, and re-energise towns and cities across the 海角视频.
This is a generational opportunity to embed innovation into the heart of placemaking. But to do that, we must be intentional. AI Growth Zones cannot be a race to the fastest bidder or the biggest headline – they must be purposefully distributed, regionally grounded, and designed with long-term value at their core.
The 海角视频 has the capital, the talent, and the global credibility to lead the AI revolution. With the emergence of AI Growth Zones, we now have the mechanism. Let’s ensure we use it to drive not just innovation, but inclusive growth, in all corners of the 海角视频.
- Kim Grieveson is a principal at Avison Young 海角视频