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UK semiconductor start-up Fractile has announced a £100 million expansion of its British operations, scaling up in London and Bristol as ministers intensify calls for greater domestic ownership of critical artificial intelligence technology.
The investment, to be deployed over the next three years, will fund a new industrial hardware engineering facility in Bristol, alongside the expansion of Fractile’s existing UK sites and a significant increase in its domestic workforce.
The company is focused on developing AI chips optimised for inference, the stage at which large language models generate outputs, an area of growing strategic importance as demand for real-time AI applications accelerates.
Engineers at the new Bristol facility will work on integrating Fractile’s chips into full AI systems and will operate a specialist software testing lab, allowing the company to develop and validate hardware and software in tandem.
The announcement comes as Kanishka Narayan, the government’s AI minister, prepares to urge Britain’s technology founders and investors to “embrace risk” and back home-grown innovation in a speech to the UK’s AI sector. He is expected to stress that British ownership of foundational technologies will be critical if the UK is to shape the future direction of AI.
Founded in 2022, Fractile is developing in-memory computing chips designed to run powerful AI models faster and with significantly lower energy consumption than conventional hardware. The market for AI inference chips is currently dominated by Nvidia, but is increasingly attracting start-ups and hyperscalers seeking more efficient and lower-cost alternatives.
Fractile is backed by the NATO Innovation Fund and has raised more than $35 million (£25.5 million) to date. The company says its technology could dramatically reduce both the cost and power required to run large AI models, an increasingly pressing constraint as data centre demand surges globally.
The expansion is being viewed as a vote of confidence in the UK’s ambitions to build a domestic AI hardware ecosystem, alongside continued investment in software, data and infrastructure. Ministers have identified “sovereign” computing capacity as a national priority, amid rising concerns over supply chains, ownership and national security.
Fractile said the £100 million commitment underlined its long-term intention to build and scale advanced semiconductor hardware on home soil, as scrutiny intensifies across the UK tech sector over who controls critical digital infrastructure.
The move follows a strong year for government-backed AI initiatives, with tens of billions of pounds of private capital pledged to UK AI projects and thousands of jobs expected to be created under the government’s year-old AI Opportunities Action Plan.
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Fractile commits £100m UK expansion as it ramps up AI chip development

The founder of Starling Bank has reduced her shareholding in the fintech, as new filings reveal that Anne Boden has cut her stake during a secondary share sale that valued the business at up to £4 billion.
Boden, who launched Starling in 2014 after senior roles at Allied Irish Banks and Lloyds, has lowered her holding to around 2.7 per cent from a previous 4.3 per cent, according to the disclosures.
The move follows a secondary share sale launched by Starling last year, aimed at allowing existing shareholders to sell down stakes while creating opportunities for new investors. At the time, the bank was targeting a valuation of between £3.5 billion and £4 billion, according to the Financial Times.
The filings show that Chrysalis Investments, which counts Starling as 53 per cent of its portfolio, retained a stake of more than 10 per cent. The Guernsey-based investment trust has been a long-term backer of Starling, leading a £30 million funding round in 2019 and investing a further £20 million in 2023.
Starling’s largest shareholder remains billionaire Harald McPike, who continues to hold more than 40 per cent of the company through his investment vehicle JTC Holdings.
The secondary sale comes amid a shift in tone from Starling’s leadership on a potential stock market listing. Over the past year, the bank’s senior team has signalled increased openness to a US flotation, marking a departure from earlier commitments to London.
Declan Ferguson, Starling’s chief financial officer, has said the bank has not yet formed a “concrete view” on the most suitable market for a listing, describing the decision as “in flux”. That contrasts with comments made in 2024 by former interim chief executive John Mountain, who said the fintech was “very committed” to a London listing and described the City as its “natural home”.
Mountain succeeded Boden as chief executive in May 2023. Her departure followed reports of tensions with investors after fund manager Jupiter sold its stake in Starling at a price below its previous valuation. Boden later said her decision to step down reflected concerns that her role as chief executive was being unduly influenced by her position as a shareholder.
When asked about her reduced stake, Boden declined to comment.
A spokesperson for Starling said: “During the last year, one of our shareholders agreed to sell some of their shares to another of our shareholders in a private, bilateral transaction. This was done with the company’s full knowledge and support.”
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Starling founder Anne Boden cuts stake in £4bn fintech

Ocado is preparing plans that could see up to 1,000 jobs cut as part of a renewed effort to rein in costs, following a difficult year for its automated warehouse technology business.
Up to 5 per cent of the group’s global workforce could be affected, according to people familiar with the discussions, although talks remain at an early stage and no final decision has been taken. An announcement could come as soon as this month.
The majority of redundancies are expected to fall at Ocado’s UK head office, with technology roles likely to be among those affected alongside back-office functions such as legal, finance and human resources.
The proposed cuts come ahead of Ocado’s full-year results on 26 February, after the group reiterated last month that it was targeting positive cashflow in the next financial year, “underpinned by rigorous cost and capital discipline”.
Last year, Ocado said it would cut around 500 roles in technology and finance as it scaled back research and development spending. That followed around 1,000 redundancies across the group in 2023 and 2024.
Founded in 2000 by three former Goldman Sachs bankers, Ocado has built its business around selling robot-operated warehouse systems to global grocery chains, alongside its online grocery joint venture with Marks & Spencer.
However, investor confidence has been shaken after two major North American partners announced plans to close a number of Ocado’s automated warehouses, known as customer fulfilment centres (CFCs), citing concerns over costs and efficiency.
Shares in the FTSE 250 group have fallen by almost a third over the past year. In November, US supermarket giant Kroger said it would close three CFCs, a move that briefly pushed Ocado’s share price back towards the 180p level at which it floated in 2010.
That was followed late last month by Sobeys, which announced plans to shut a CFC in Calgary, Alberta, pointing to slower-than-expected growth in online grocery shopping and the limited size of the regional market.
Although Ocado is set to receive hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation linked to the closures, analysts have warned that the setbacks could undermine its ability to secure new international partnerships. Mutual exclusivity agreements with most retail partners expired in December, raising questions about the long-term pipeline for its technology.
Tim Steiner, Ocado’s founder and chief executive, has previously described the company as the “Tesla of grocery”. Despite its technological ambitions, the group has yet to turn a profit. Pre-tax losses narrowed slightly last year to £374.5 million, from £393.6 million in 2024.
In a statement, Ocado said: “We regularly review our operations to ensure we’re set up for long-term success. If and when decisions are made that affect our people, we are committed to communicating with them directly and ensuring they are supported throughout.”
The coming weeks are likely to be closely watched by investors and staff alike as Ocado seeks to stabilise its business and prove it can translate cutting-edge automation into sustainable financial returns.
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Ocado considers up to 1,000 job cuts in renewed cost-cutting drive

Training workers to use artificial intelligence will be “critical” to managing disruption in the UK labour market, according to Andrew Bailey, who said there were already signs that AI was reshaping careers and hiring patterns.
Speaking at a conference in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, Bailey said the long-term impact of AI on employment remained “highly uncertain”, but warned that early indicators pointed to meaningful change.
“In the UK, in the last three years, new online vacancies in the most AI-exposed roles have decreased by more than twice as much as in the least exposed group,” he said.
“On the positive side, however, there has been a significant increase in new tasks, such as integrating AI tools into firms’ workflow processes.”
Bailey cautioned against drawing simplistic conclusions about the effect of AI on jobs, stressing that education and reskilling would be central to ensuring workers were not left behind. “Education and training in AI skills will be critical,” he said. “We shouldn’t resort to oversimplified conclusions on the employment effects.”
His comments came at the end of a volatile week for global markets, during which renewed anxiety over artificial intelligence wiped more than $1 trillion off the combined value of the world’s largest technology and software companies.
Investor nerves were rattled in part by new product launches from Anthropic, one of the world’s leading AI developers. The company unveiled tools aimed at automating legal work such as contract review, alongside its latest Claude Opus 4.6 model, which is capable of analysing complex information and producing presentations and spreadsheets.
The developments fuelled fears about job displacement and business model disruption, triggering sharp share price falls among UK-listed companies seen as highly exposed to AI. These included RELX, London Stock Exchange Group, and Sage.
At the same time, concerns grew that enthusiasm for AI may have run ahead of reality in the US technology sector. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft have collectively committed to spending around $660 billion this year on data centres and advanced computer chips to support AI development.
Fears that such vast capital investment may not deliver sufficient returns have weighed on share prices, adding to wider market turbulence. The pullback follows years of strong gains in US technology stocks, driven by investor optimism about AI-led productivity gains, optimism that has also raised concerns about a potential bubble.
Bailey said there were signs of “fear of missing out” in markets, reinforced by claims that AI represents a structural break from previous technology cycles. “We have seen arguments along the lines of ‘this time is different’, for instance because of the expected productivity benefits of AI,” he said.
He warned that this narrative risked complacency among investors and policymakers alike. “Expectations of AI-driven productivity gains could be disappointed,” he said.
Despite the caution, Bailey struck a broadly optimistic note on the long-term economic potential of AI and robotics. He said he believed the technologies could boost productivity and growth by automating repetitive tasks and creating entirely new types of work.
However, he added that the transition would not be painless. “Some industries might shrink, others grow, and affected workers will need to retrain to adapt their skills,” he said, underlining once again that investment in training would be decisive in shaping the future of the UK jobs market.
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Andrew Bailey warns AI training is critical to future of UK jobs

Innovate UK has awarded more than £300,000 in funding to a collaboration between the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Sustainable Innovation and UK healthtech company Sanome, to accelerate the development of an AI-enabled system for the early detection of hospital-acquired infections.
The 18-month SMART grant will support the co-design and roll-out of MEMORI, a Class IIb CE-certified software-as-a-medical-device (SaMD) platform that analyses real-time clinical data to predict infection risk up to seven days before symptoms appear.
Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) account for more than 20 per cent of NHS bed days each year, with research suggesting that between 35 and 55 per cent are preventable through earlier detection and intervention. Conditions such as pneumonia, MRSA and Clostridium difficile contribute an estimated 7.1 million excess bed days annually, at a cost of around £2.7 billion to the NHS.
Preliminary studies using MEMORI’s first certified version have already shown it outperforming the NHS-standard National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) in detecting patient deterioration. The new funding will support the development of enhanced capabilities, including:
• Integration of additional multimodal data sources such as laboratory results, prescriptions and clinical notes, alongside existing inputs including vital signs and medications
• Deeper integration with Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems to embed insights into clinicians’ existing workflows
• A targeted 20 per cent improvement in predictive accuracy, extending the window for early intervention
• Improved explainability and machine-learning performance to increase transparency and clinical confidence
The upgraded MEMORI v2 platform will be validated through a large-scale live deployment across multiple wards at Royal Devon University NHS Foundation Trust, addressing what remains one of the NHS’s most persistent clinical and financial challenges.
The collaboration is supported by the NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre and is intended to pave the way for broader adoption across the NHS. It also lays the foundations for a long-term partnership between Sanome and the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre, hosted by the Royal Devon in partnership with the University of Exeter.
Together, the partners aim to build a longitudinal, real-time view of patient health, initially focused on infection risk but designed to expand into wider preventative and personalised care pathways.
Benedikt von Thüngen, chief executive and founder of Sanome, said: “Our mission is to prevent deterioration before it becomes life-threatening. MEMORI shows how real-world NHS data, when safely unlocked, can be transformed into actionable bedside insights using multimodal AI. Working with the Exeter HealthTech Research Centre, with support from Innovate UK, allows us to demonstrate both the clinical and system-wide benefits of AI in one of the UK’s leading NHS trusts.”
Dr Nick Kennedy, digital innovation and AI theme lead at the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Sustainable Innovation and a consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Devon, said early intervention was critical. “Hospital-acquired infections remain one of the biggest threats to patient safety, particularly for vulnerable patients. By co-designing MEMORI, we can show how AI can support clinicians, transform care and ultimately save lives.”
Chris Sawyer, innovation lead for digital health at Innovate UK, added: “Supporting the safe introduction of AI into frontline NHS care is essential for building a more resilient, patient-centred health service. This partnership is a strong example of how innovation and clinical expertise can combine to tackle long-standing challenges.”
Initial impact data from the live deployment is expected throughout 2026, alongside plans for further rollout across NHS trusts and healthcare organisations nationwide.
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Innovate UK awards £300k grant to boost AI-led early detection of hospital infections

Small business owners struggling with the stress caused by late or unpaid invoices have been offered new support, as fresh guidance is launched to address the mental health impact of cashflow pressure.
Timed to coincide with Time to Talk Day, the Office of the Small Business Commissioner (OSBC) has published new online guidance designed to help SMEs and freelancers access mental health support while also pointing them towards practical steps to tackle late payment issues.
Late payment is typically framed as a financial problem, but growing evidence suggests it can also take a significant toll on wellbeing. For many business owners, uncertainty over when they will be paid can trigger ongoing anxiety about meeting overheads, paying staff and keeping their business viable.
The new guidance brings together business-focused advice and trusted mental health resources in one place, offering support for owners who may be feeling overwhelmed. It also outlines practical actions SMEs can take when unpaid invoices begin to affect their financial stability and mental health.
The resource has been developed alongside research from Leapers, which examined the link between financial stress and mental health among small business owners and freelancers.
Emma Jones, Small Business Commissioner (pictured), said running a business can be mentally demanding, particularly when payment delays are involved. She said it was vital that freelancers and small business owners know where to turn for support and feel able to ask for help.
“Having founded a small business support platform and network before becoming Small Business Commissioner, I have seen the profound and positive impact when freelancers join a community of like-minded peers,” Jones said. “At the Office of the Small Business Commissioner we are committed to playing our part, with a focus on tackling and challenging late payment, so those going into self-employment can realise the full benefits of working for yourself.”
However, some industry figures have warned that support alone will not solve the underlying problem.
Stephen Carter, Director of Payment Strategy at Ivalua, said the guidance was right to acknowledge the mental health impact of late payment but argued that the government must go further.
“UK SMEs don’t just need mental health support to cope with late payments. They need legislation and enforcement to stop delays in the first place,” he said. “Late payments aren’t an unavoidable fact of life; they are a failure of governance, accountability and outdated payment processes.”
Carter added that delayed payments are often driven by poor internal controls within large organisations, including fragmented procurement and finance systems, manual processes and a lack of visibility over supplier commitments. He warned that the consequences can be severe, with supply chains disrupted and smaller suppliers pushed to the brink.
Research cited by Ivalua suggests more than a third of UK businesses have seen suppliers go out of business due to cost pressures linked to late payment.
Carter urged the government to publish its response to last year’s late payment consultation without further delay, warning that continued inaction risks signalling to larger organisations that poor payment practices will be tolerated, while SMEs are left to absorb the financial and emotional strain.
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New guidance aims to help small business owners cope with mental strain of late payments

The Governor of the Bank of England has said he was “shocked” by revelations that Lord Mandelson leaked sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein during the 2008 financial crisis, saying it was right that the matter is now being investigated by the police.
Andrew Bailey made the comments as he paid tribute to the late former chancellor Alistair Darling, drawing a sharp contrast between Darling’s conduct during the crisis and the alleged actions of the former business secretary.
Asked whether sufficient safeguards exist to prevent those in positions of power from misusing market-sensitive information, Bailey said there was a “very clear” legal framework for dealing with potential breaches and that it was appropriate for the Mandelson allegations to be handled by law enforcement.
He also stressed that the focus should remain on Epstein’s victims, asking: “How is it that we live in a society that this happened and was allowed to happen?”
Bailey appeared visibly emotional as he reflected on images showing Mandelson alongside Darling during the crisis period. He described Darling as someone who acted with “honesty and decency” while helping to steer the UK through one of the most severe financial shocks in modern history.
“Alistair Darling was doing all the right things,” Bailey said. “He was doing them with a thorough sense of integrity, and he can’t speak for himself today, sadly.”
Darling died in November 2023 aged 70.
The comments follow reports that Mandelson kept Epstein informed about the Labour government’s decision to cap bankers’ bonuses in the aftermath of the financial crash and that he had sought to persuade the Treasury to abandon the policy. The disclosures have triggered a police investigation.
Bailey said he was “shocked by what we heard about that period”, reiterating that the priority must be the harm suffered by Epstein’s victims rather than the reputations of those implicated.
The Bank of England governor has previously been drawn into scrutiny surrounding Epstein due to his role as head of the Financial Conduct Authority when the regulator investigated Jes Staley, the former Barclays chief executive, over his relationship with the disgraced financier.
Staley unsuccessfully challenged the FCA’s decision to ban him from senior financial services roles, with the court upholding the regulator’s finding that he had acted with a lack of integrity by misleading it about the nature of his links to Epstein. While the ban was maintained, the court reduced a financial penalty imposed on Staley.
That case centred on a cache of emails between Staley and Epstein, some of which later became public and added to wider concerns about accountability and conduct at the highest levels of finance and government.
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Bank of England Governor ‘shocked’ by Mandelson leaks to Epstein

Britain’s only tin mine could end up exporting much of its future production to the United States after the American government signalled it is prepared to provide up to $225 million (£166 million) in financing to revive the historic South Crofty site in Cornwall.
Cornish Metals, which is working to bring the South Crofty mine near Camborne back into production, has received a letter of interest from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Exim), proposing a potential financing package linked to supplying tin to the US market.
The move comes less than a year after Cornish Metals secured a £28.6 million equity investment from the UK’s government-backed National Wealth Fund, which was framed at the time as supporting a domestic supply of a strategically important mineral.
In its statement, Cornish Metals said Exim’s interest was explicitly tied to South Crofty providing a “responsible supply of tin concentrate” to the United States, as Washington seeks to strengthen critical mineral supply chains and reduce dependence on overseas producers.
The company estimates it will cost around £198 million to restart the mine by mid-2028, with both costs and timelines increasing over the past year. It is now seeking to secure funding to cover capital expenditure and operating costs as it moves towards production. Shares in Cornish Metals rose 2.7 per cent following confirmation of Exim’s interest.
Tin is classed as a critical mineral and is widely used in electronics, renewable energy systems and advanced manufacturing. The UK currently has no domestic tin production, and South Crofty is expected to produce an average of around 4,700 tonnes of tin concentrate annually in its first five years, roughly equivalent to the UK’s total yearly consumption.
Fawzi Hanano, Cornish Metals’ chief development officer, said the US financing proposal would inevitably come with expectations around offtake.
“Exim would not give money to a foreign entity unless there’s something in it for them,” he said. “Ideally they would want all of the production, but in reality it would be a certain percentage that aligns with the level of financing being provided.”
He confirmed that none of South Crofty’s future output is currently committed to buyers and that there is no obligation for the mine to supply UK customers, despite the National Wealth Fund’s involvement.
One of the challenges, Hanano said, is that while the mine will produce a high-grade tin concentrate, the UK and Europe currently lack the smelting capacity needed to process it into refined tin metal.
“There is no smelting capacity in the UK or Europe at present, so there is no outlet for tin concentrate domestically,” he said. While the US also lacks significant smelting capacity today, it is in the process of developing it as part of its critical minerals strategy.
Hanano suggested that government-to-government agreements could still allow for some tin to flow back to UK end users in the future. “If one country has upstream capacity and another has processing capability, there are structures where material can be processed and some of it returned. That’s ultimately a decision for governments to take.”
The potential deal highlights growing geopolitical competition for critical minerals, and raises questions over how far UK-backed resource projects may ultimately serve domestic industry when global supply chains, and foreign state financing come into play.
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US offers $225m backing for Cornwall tin mine in bid to secure supply

Investment in UK film production hit a record £2.8bn last year, driven overwhelmingly by Hollywood studios and global streaming platforms, according to new figures from the British Film Institute (BFI).
However, industry leaders are warning that growth is likely to slow in 2026 as Netflix shifts production back to the United States amid political pressure and plans for a blockbuster acquisition.
The BFI said that 91 per cent of the £2.78bn spent on UK film production in 2025 came from “inward investment”, funding from studios and streamers based outside the UK. The total marks a 23 per cent increase year on year and represents the highest level of film production spend since the BFI began tracking the data in 2002.
The surge was fuelled by a run of major international productions choosing the UK as a filming base, including Avengers: Doomsday, Super Girl and four separate biopics focusing on members of The Beatles. More than £2.5bn of total film spend came from US-based companies such as Netflix and Amazon, up 30 per cent on the previous year.
High-end television production also remained strong. Spending on UK-made TV shows with budgets of more than £1m per episode rose by over 7 per cent to £4bn, again dominated by US-backed platforms. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ accounted for around 80 per cent of that total, backing global hits including Bridgerton, Slow Horses, Outlander and The Thursday Murder Club.
UK broadcasters showed modest recovery after a difficult period. Investment from ITV, Sky, Channel 4 and Channel 5 edged up to £688m, following a five-year low in 2024, but remained well below historic highs.
In total, combined spending on UK film and high-end TV production reached £6.8bn in 2025, up 13 per cent on the year. Yet despite the strong headline numbers, the outlook has become more uncertain.
Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos has confirmed that the streaming giant is actively pulling projects back to the US to support domestic job creation, as it seeks regulatory approval for its proposed $82.7bn (£59bn) takeover of Warner Bros Discovery. Speaking before a US Senate antitrust subcommittee this week, Sarandos said new tax incentives in New Jersey had made filming in the US more attractive than overseas locations, including the UK.
He revealed that since the incentives were approved, Netflix had redirected 11 projects into the US, seven of which had originally been planned for the UK. Sarandos said the company was “very invested in creating more American jobs” and keeping production at home, signalling increased competition for UK studios as governments race to offer more generous incentives.
While the UK remains one of the world’s most attractive destinations for large-scale film and TV production, thanks to its talent base, infrastructure and tax reliefs, industry figures are increasingly concerned that geopolitical pressure and subsidy competition could temper growth after a record-breaking year.
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Hollywood money fuelled record £2.8bn spend on UK film production in 2025