The recent UK-US transatlantic trade deal heralds a commitment to investment in the UK’s AI sector by American technology companies. AI computer leader Nvidia, for example, will invest £11bn - the largest AI infrastructure investment in the UK’s history.
One of Oxfordshire’s key players in autonomous vehicle software, Oxa, was immediately able to announce an expansion of its use of Nvidia technology in its drive to speed up the introduction of Industrial Mobility Automation (IMA): driverless vehicles used in handling goods and materials.
Gavin Jackson, CEO of Oxa which is based at Arc Oxford, described the Anglo-American tech deal as a ‘warp drive’ for AI that was ‘akin to flipping the switch on the next industrial revolution and securing our role in it.’ He added that Oxa’s AI-based partnership with Nvidia will help his company to lead the IMA category globally by accelerating development and moving more quickly from trials to deployment.
The planned US investments in AI will also support other companies in the region such as Isomorphic Labs, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, and ElevenLabs.
AI has taken on increasing prominence in the success of Oxfordshire’s organisations. Culham Campus, south of Oxford, is spearheading a £4.9 million nuclear robotics and artificial intelligence cluster. The Culham site has also been selected for the UK’s first AI Growth Zone (AIGZ) which will entail the rapid build-out of data centres. The UK Government, it its choice of Culham, acknowledged the region as ‘the home of some of the brightest scientific minds in the world.’ In July, a 500MW energy storage facility on land north-west of Culham was given planning approval. The Oxa-Nvidia partnership builds on the UK’s Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan, which identifies connected and autonomous mobility as a key area for growth. Advanced manufacturers that are thriving in Oxfordshire include electric motor manufacturer YASA, which has just opened its £200 million new headquarters in Bicester, and Alloyed which provides innovators stronger and lighter metals.
Oxfordshire offers a skilled workforce with talent in engineering, AI, and robotics, and many researchers, founders and alumni of the University of Oxford will be at the heart of these initiatives and indeed have been central to securing this initiative in government. Oxford was recently named as the world’s fifth most significant centre for innovation intensity (WIPO Global Innovation Index 2025) - a metric based on patent filings, scientific publications and venture capital deals relative to population.