LONDON — At a couple of pages long, the technology pact the U.S. and the U.K. will sign this week when President Donald Trump lands in London will be easy to miss amid the circus of a state visit.

But what will be impossible to ignore is the group of technology heavyweights joining Trump’s entourage. Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, who is hosting a party in London’s King’s Cross on Thursday night, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman are among those accompanying the U.S. president.

Nvidia is due to announce an investment in Britain’s biggest data center, planned for Blyth in northeast England, according to three people familiar with the plans. A subsidiary of Blackstone is leading the project and OpenAI is also involved. It is expected to be billed as a British “Stargate,” similar to a Norwegian version the companies announced in July.

The tech pact Trump will agree with Prime Minister Keir Starmer has paved the way for some of that investment, the U.K. embassy in Washington believes. The document focuses on building partnerships — through R&D, procurement and skills — in AI, quantum and space, according to two people briefed on it.

A U.K. government spokesperson claimed the pact would “change the lives” of Brits and Americans, while U.K. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: “Boosting our tech ties with the U.S. will help us deliver the change people here at home expect and deserve.”

A separate agreement on nuclear energy will also come during the state visit, fast-tracking reactor design checks between the two countries. It includes plans to build data centers powered by small modular reactors at the former coal power station in Cottam, Nottinghamshire.

Made in the USA 

Britain pitched the pact to Washington as a way for Western democracies to beat China in the technology race and set a “gold standard” in digital rulemaking. Yet while the country’s AI strategy talks about sovereignty, with only £2 billion of public money set aside to deliver it, Britain is heavily reliant on U.S. investments and technology to make it happen.

Gaia Marcus, director of the Ada Lovelace Institute think tank, warned of increased U.K. reliance on America. “The public deserves to understand who really benefits from these partnerships and what the return will be for taxpayers in years to come,” she said. “We mustn’t just focus on what the figures look like today, if the cost is technological lock-in tomorrow, limiting our ability to seek alternatives in the future.” 

Chi Onwurah, chair of the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, said: “Whilst I’m pleased that the U.K. is an attractive place for U.S. investment, the U.K. needs to take decisions that are in its long-term strategic interest; true technology sovereignty cannot mean being dependent on one investor or country.”

But Keegan McBride, senior policy advisor in emerging technology and geopolitics at the Tony Blair Institute, said the U.K. has little choice as only the U.S. or China were able to provide it with the AI infrastructure it needed to compete. “For the U.K. and for many other countries that want to access frontier AI capabilities, the United States represents the best option,” he said. 

The Trump administration, meanwhile, wants to sell American AI “packages” to its allies, pitching them as a form of AI sovereignity. “We are committed to finding a way to enable America’s private companies to meet your national technological needs,” White House tech policy chief Michael Kratsios told APEC members at a conference in South Korea this August. 

Another prize for U.S. tech companies is large government contracts. Britain’s defense department announced a £400 million deal with Google Cloud last week, while Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Cloud signed separate partnership agreements with the U.K. government earlier this year.  

Just don’t mention rules 

The U.S.-U.K. tech pact is expected to avoid the thornier issue of online regulation, but it is something the White House has pressured the U.K. government on throughout trade negotiations. Starmer also faces domestic pressure from Nigel Farage, leader of the populist and poll-topping Reform UK party, who compared Britain’s free speech laws to North Korea in the U.S. Congress this month. 

Starmer has repeatedly defended Britain’s Online Safety Act, including in front of Trump at his Scottish Turnberry resort in August, while Trump has also attacked the Digital Services Tax and competition regulations. 

McBride said: “There is a growing number of regulatory concerns on the side of the United States, particularly regarding censorship and free speech, that could disrupt tech relations between the two countries.”   

One person briefed on the agenda for Trump’s visit said: “There are three regulatory pieces that the U.S. is really concerned about in Europe right now. They’re going to be looking … to see some sort of support from the U.K.” 

They listed the Digital Services Tax, which the government has repeatedly ruled out ditching, the EU’s Digital Markets Act, and the CSDD (an EU supply chain disclosure reporting standard). “There are people inside the White House that are very set on expanding the U.S.-U.K. relationship as a means to counterbalance the EU, and I think that’s a big part of this trip.”