Scottish supercomputer project hit by £1.3bn UK Government budget cut

The new Labour government has shelved £1.3bn of funding for technology and artificial intelligence (AI) projects, including the share dedicated to developing an exascale supercomputer at Edinburgh University.

The cash had been pledged by the Conservatives less than a year ago in what Labour claims was part of “unfunded commitments”. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSit) said the funding had not been allocated in its budget.

A government spokesperson said: “We are absolutely committed to building technology infrastructure that delivers growth and opportunity for people across the UK.

“The government is taking difficult and necessary spending decisions across all departments in the face of billions of pounds of unfunded commitments. This is essential to restore economic stability and deliver our national mission for growth.”

A total of £800m had been allocated to the University of Edinburgh’s project and the Scottish institution has already spent £31m on the infrastructure required to house the supercomputer, which was to be 50 times faster than any existing machines.

It was hoped the supercomputer would allow researchers to accelerate their work on challenges such as climate science, AI and medicine.

The first phase of its installation was due to start next year, but now the project's future is unclear.

A spokesperson for the university said: “The University of Edinburgh has led the way in supercomputing within the UK for decades and is ready to work with the government to support the next phase of this technology in the UK in order to unlock its benefits for industry, public services and society.”

It is understood, thhe University's Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Peter Mathieson, is urgently seeking a meeting with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.

A further half a million pounds has been taken away from the AI Research Resource, which funds computing power for AI. However, £300m in funding for the resource has already been distributed and will continue as planned.

Despite Labour's allegation, the Tories claim that at the time of the election, DSit had underspent its budget for the current financial year.

Shadow science secretary Andrew Griffith said: “This is a terrible blow to the UK tech sector and could be just the start of Labour cuts. During the election Labour refused to commit to growing the amount the UK spends on research, yet that’s a core part of growing a modern economy. If DSit can’t get the funds from the Treasury, this means university research can expect to be hit, too.”

In a post on social media platform X, Griffith accused Labour of having “lower ambitions” for the tech sector, adding “no one should be fooled” by its allegation that the Conservatives were to blame for the cut.

He added: “We increased public spending on research to a record £20bn a year for 2024/25 and, unlike Labour, we committed to increase that by a further 10 per cent in our manifesto. AI and Exascale Compute were both beneficiaries of this increased funding.”

The announcement comes a week after science secretary Peter Kyle said he was “putting AI at the heart of the government’s agenda to boost growth and improve our public services” and appointed the tech entrepreneur Matt Clifford to elaborate an action plan.

It also comes days after the government invested £100m in five new quantum hubs, two of which are to be based in Scotland.