The government has launched a £100 million competition to support British Ai companies to help fix public services.

This is the first procurement competition under the £100 million Sovereign AI R&D Procurement Scheme.

The competition will back British firms to develop solutions to some of the UK’s biggest challenges, from boosting NHS productivity and strengthening national security to improving cyber resilience and expanding computing infrastructure.

The scheme is designed to help startups compete on a level playing field regardless of their size. Successful companies will keep the intellectual property they create, to allow them to develop commercial products for the UK and around the world.

The first four competitions will are NHS productivity challenge; Driving compute efficiency; Integrate AI at pace across Defence mission environments and Agent security and resilience testing.

Chancellor John Healey MP said: "Britain is home to some of the most innovative AI companies in the world, and this government is backing them to start, scale and succeed here in the UK.

"This first-of-its-kind competition will help make sure more of the benefits of AI are felt in every UK postcode.  

"As G20 countries seek to make the most of AI opportunities, I’m determined Britain has a lead role in harnessing this technology to drive more jobs, better public services, and growth that’s UK-wide."

AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said: "When we said that Sovereign AI would put the heft of a nation behind Britain’s AI founders, we meant it.

"Every year the British state spends billions procuring products and solutions tackling some of the most important challenges facing society - from health, to our national defence. This first-of-its-kind scheme will open up these opportunities to the British AI innovators whose ideas could make the biggest difference, backing their businesses to grow here, and go on to win globally."