In order to enable a compute capacity increase of almost 2,000%, department plans to enter into a contract to work with a hosting firm for the rest of the decade

Government has alerted suppliers to its plans to implement a £250m cloud deal with a provider that can help deliver a twentyfold increase in the computing power that underpins research explorations of artificial intelligence.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has published a planning notice indicating  that, in around six months’ time, it intends to enter into a four-year deal with “a cloud provider [that will be] contracted to deliver scalable, state-of-the-art AI compute, delivered through a flexible cloud service”.

The notice added: “This capability will expand the capacity of the UK AI Research Resource (UKAIRR), for use by the UK research and AI community. This will consist of a core reserved capacity, with the option to scale up for extra capacity, if required.”

DSIT expects to issue a formal tender for the contract next month. The deal will be worth £250m to the winning bidder, the planning notice says.

“Full details on the requirement and how to participate will be provided at the Tender Notice publish date,” the document adds. “[DSIT] reserves the right to revise this planned procurement notice to make further information available.”

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The AI Opportunities Action Plan commissioned by ministers and published earlier this year set out as one of its 50 recommendations that, by 2030, government should increase the capacity and computing power supporting AIRR by a factor of 20.

In documents launching a feedback exercise run six months ago by DSIT and the Crown Commercial Service, government said the power-up was aimed at “ensuring that researchers and startups can access the infrastructure needed to drive new breakthroughs”.

The consultation outline added: “This request for Information seeks to understand how the UK government can meet this ambitious target, and how HM Government can create partnerships to achieve it. We would like to understand: what capabilities exist in the marketplace; what role partnerships between HM Government and industry can play in building and securing new capability; how the full landscape of UK AI research could be supported through partnership arrangements to strengthen the UK’s sovereign AI capabilities.”

The document indicated that the insights gained via the exercise would inform both the UK Compute Roadmap released by government over the summer – as well as “DSIT’s commercial strategy on AI infrastructure”.