难以计算：为什么初创公司需要更多权力

Hardto Compute:Why Startups Authors Martha DacombeEmerging Technologies, Policy Lead Vira VeselukhaClimateTech, Policy Lead Vinous AliDeputy Executive Director AboutStartup Coalition StartupCoalition is an independent advocacy group that serves as the policy voice for the UK’stechnology-led startups and scale-ups. We were founded in 2010 by Mike Butcher, Editor-at-Large ofTechCrunch, and Jeff Lynn, Chairman and Co-Founder of online investment platform Seedrs. We fightfor a policy environment that enables early-stage British tech companies to grow, scale, and competeglobally. Our network includes over 4000 startups, scale-ups, and investors. We have been instrumental inbuilding proactive coalitions of businesses and investors on issues integral to the health of the UK’sstartup ecosystem. Our work has seen many successes, from the establishment of the Future Fund tothe creation of the Scale-Up Visa. Introduction Compute is the lifeblood of the digital economy. It is the infrastructure that powers artificial intelligence,enables machine learning breakthroughs, processes vast datasets, and drives the digital transformationthat is reshaping every sector from healthcare to finance. As we enter into the next Industrial Revolution,access to computational power has become synonymous with economic competitiveness, scientificleadership,and national security.Without sufficient computational capacity, even the most brilliantinnovations remain locked in laboratories, and the most promising startups hit insurmountable walls. The Government’sCompute Roadmapcan be sorted into three broad buckets. Firstly, building out AIgrowthzones;secondly,bolstering and expanding the AI Research Resource (AIRR), and finally,evolving procurement to support the development and diversification of the stack in the UK – cruciallyensuring that UK startups are at the heart of this process. There is no doubt that the Roadmap demonstrates genuine ambition; however, executing it will requirelaser-focus from the Government and them reaching out into spaces they don’t currently occupy. We may be biased, but we firmly believe that in this case UK startups will not only be netbeneficiaries of getting this right, but will actually help enable and accelerate execution of theplan. This report therefore is in two parts: PART ONE:Examines the need for compute and offers thoughts on how a blended model with elementsreserved for secure and sovereign compute would ensure the UK brings compute on stream quickly tomeet growing demand. PARTTWO:Outlines how at every part of the stack, and in related areas, startups can supportGovernmentto meet the objectives laid out in the Compute Roadmap,as well as simply beingbeneficiaries. From chip design to reimagining data centres, startups are innovating to meet futuredemand in a way that is efficient, sustainable and sovereign (where it needs to be). TheHistory of Compute Policy Approaches In 2023, under the last Conservative Government, theIndependent Review on the Future of Computewas published. This report, led by Zoubin Grahramani FRS, established compute as acritical capabilityrequiringurgent government intervention. The Review linked the success of compute build-out asintegralto success in other policy areas, such as economic growth, net zero targets and overallcompetitiveness of the British digital economy. In January 2025, the then new Labour Government published theAI Opportunities Action Plan,writtenby Matt Clifford. The plan elevated compute beyond a technical resource to a matter of economicsecurity, arguing that access to compute would form a key pillar of the UK's economic resilience. Thisrepresented a subtle but important shift in emphasis from the Independent Review, and pushed theGovernmentto take seriously the procurement of sovereign,and domestic compute resource asessential to the competitiveness of the British economy. In theAI Opportunities Action Plan,developing sovereign compute capabilities was designated as aspecific aim. Indeed, in the Plan, sovereign AI is described as ‘owned/and or allocated by the publicsector, [and] will enable the UK to quickly and independently allocate compute to national priorities’.1Thisemphasis on a sovereign capability is important, as it compels the Government to seriously invest incompute to power access to this critical resource for startups, academics and researchers building thefuture. However, the plan also outlines how the UK will also need privately owned compute to meet thegrand ambitions of the Roadmap to expand overall capacity in the UK. It should not be ignored that the UK is already in a strong position when it comes to the development ofAI. The UK's AI ecosystem represents a genuine success story, there are over 3,700 AI companies inBritain, and the overall sector was valued at a staggering £72.3bn in 20242. The UK is Europe’sundisputed leader, and this is a lead that other countries in Europe and further afield envy. However, nota w