The UK government says it has secured £150bn worth of US investment, which it hopes will create 7,600 jobs.
The announcement came on the day that US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer signed an agreement dubbed the “Tech Prosperity Deal”, which sees firms such as Microsoft and Google pledging to spend billions in the UK.
It is part of a wider plan by the UK to deepen economic ties with the US. However, some industries, such as steel, have been dealt a blow with a proposed deal to cut tariffs shelved.
Several big drug companies, such as AstraZeneca, have also halted investment plans, claiming the UK is an “increasingly challenging” country to do business in.
The vast majority of the £150bn investment – £90bn – will come from Blackstone over the next decade, although how most of this money will be spent has yet to be decided. The US private equity firm announced in June it would spend £370bn across Europe over 10 years.
The technology deal will see the UK and US cooperate in areas including artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and nuclear power.
Microsoft has pledged to spend £22bn in the UK over the next four years, while Google is to invest £5bn over the next two years to expand an existing data centre in Hertfordshire.
Starmer said the investments were “a testament to Britain’s economic strength and a bold signal that our country is open, ambitious, and ready to lead”.
The PM is keen to make the UK a destination for US investment in an attempt to boost Britain’s economy.
While it is hoped the investments will generate thousands of jobs in the years ahead, it comes at a time when domestic businesses appear to be slowing investment due to higher running costs.
The government says 7,600 jobs will be created by the investments, but over the year to August, the number of people on UK payrolls has fallen by an estimated 127,000, according to the Office for National Statistics. Vacancies were down by 119,000 (14%) in June to August 2025 from the level of a year ago.
Many firms have blamed increasing costs, such as having to pay more in National Insurance and the minimum wage, as reasons for slowing investment.
In recent days, pharmaceutical companies have highlighted other challenges to investing in the UK. US giant Merck rowed back on a plan to invest £1bn after blaming successive governments for undervaluing innovative medicines. Instead, it will move research to the US.
AstraZeneca then paused plans to invest £200m at a Cambridge research site, a project expected to create 1,000 jobs. It has also switched its investment to the US.
Meanwhile, money is also flowing from UK firms to the US. In the investment announcement, the government pointed to drug giant GSK investing nearly £22bn in R&D and manufacturing in the US over a five-year period.
Where is the UK investment going?
- Blackstone’s large investment is in addition to the £10bn it previously announced for data centre development in the UK
- Real estate investment trust Prologis is set to invest £3.9bn into the UK’s life sciences and advanced manufacturing in Cambridge and Daventry
- Palantir is invest up to £1.5bn in UK defence innovation and plans to create up to 350 new jobs.
- American tech company Amentum plans to create more than 3,000 jobs across Glasgow to Warrington and the Midlands
- Boeing has said it will convert two 737 aircraft in Birmingham for the US Air Force, which would be the first USAF aircraft built in the UK for more than 50 years
Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle said the planned investment reflected growing confidence in the UK’s industrial strategy.
“These record-breaking investments will create thousands of high-quality jobs across the UK,” he said.
But former Deputy Prime Minister Sir Nick Clegg, who also used to be Facebook’s president of global affairs, told the BBC’s Today programme that the investment was “crumbs from the Silicon Valley table”.
He called for “some perspective” to be applied to the “hype”, and that the deal did not solve the UK’s “perennial achilles heel”, which was that British start-ups tended to end up in the US as they seek investment.
“Not only do we import all their technology, we export all our good people and good ideas as well,” he said.
He said the UK had to learn to “stand more on our own two feet”, rather than “cling on to Uncle Sam’s coat tails”.
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