Donald Trump’s controversial state visit to the UK has been hailed by some as a success following the announcement of £250bn of investments between the two nations and a new technology trade deal.
Despite thousands taking to the streets across the country over the last few days to oppose the US president’s visit, some politicians may be concluding the week believing the risk has been worth the reward.
“This historic second state visit is a moment to celebrate the unique bond between our two countries,” said Sir Keir Starmer, following various meetings and events alongside his American counterparts.
“But today, we’ve gone far beyond that, we’ve renewed the special relationship for a new era.”
He added: “The United Kingdom and the United States stand together today as first partners on defence, first partners in trade, with the groundbreaking deal we struck in May and now with the new agreement that we’ve just signed this afternoon, when confirming our status as the first partners in science and technology, ready to define this century together just as we did the last.”
Dubbed the ‘Tech Prosperity Deal,’ this week’s agreements appear to focus on areas such as AI, nuclear energy and technology investments. It follows months after the US and the UK signed a ‘historic’ Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD) in May.
Several massive investments by major companies, including Google, Nvidia, and OpenAI, were also unveiled, suggesting a significant focus on technology development between the two nations.
But it comes amid a widely pessimistic outlook among the UK population, with a recent YouGov poll revealing that just a quarter of Brits believe that the state visit will improve relations between the UK and the US.
Many are also seemingly sceptical of Trump’s economic approaches following his tariff wars around the world, while this week’s protestors also voiced opposition to everything that Trump’s politics represent. For many, the question remains whether this week’s agreements will have much benefit for anyone other than the UK’s business and tech leaders.
So what exactly was agreed upon this week? And what’s in it for UK citizens?
Accelerating artificial intelligence (AI)
According to a memorandum released following this week’s meetings, a significant area of focus includes more investments in AI technology.
“AI is the defining technology of our age, presenting limitless opportunities to improve people’s lives,” the memorandum reads.
“The Participants intend to collaborate closely in the build-out of powerful AI infrastructure, facilitate research community access to compute, support the creation of new scientific data sets, and harness their expertise in metrology and evaluations to enable adoption and advance our collective security.”
In layman’s terms, it appears that the US and the UK will collaborate on developing new AI models that they hope can benefit sectors including precision medicine for cancer care, fusion energy and biotechnology.
There’s also a mention of further collaboration on AI between the two countries’ space agencies, as well as the development of AI exports, data centres, hardware and supply chains.
“The world is at the dawn of a golden nuclear age,” the memorandum notes, appearing to signal that the UK and the US are keen to develop more civil nuclear power programmes.
The two leaders have agreed to work toward developing new nuclear reactors, advanced nuclear fuels and fusion energy. The agreement goes on to reveal that they’ve agreed to work on nuclear deployments in new markets, improving reactor designs, advancing atomic fuels, and fusion power plants.
Trump and Starmer’s nuclear energy discussions come amid a backdrop of the acceleration of atomic weapons development around the world and the breakdown of some nuclear weapons treaties.
However, international agencies closely monitor nuclear programmes, and there’s no indication here that the recent agreement relates to weaponry.
It’s worth noting, though, that US tactical nuclear weapons may have been stored at an airbase in Suffolk from this summer, marking the first time in almost two decades that the UK is housing American atomic bombs that Trump oversees.
Neither government has confirmed the existence of the tactical nuclear weapons, but some activists have expressed concern that it raises the security risk at a time when tensions are rising across Europe.
The US and the UK have agreed to build quantum machines that “transform defence, finance, and healthcare, protect the Participants’ citizens, and create high-skilled jobs.”
In short, this suggests the development of supercomputer technology through scientific collaboration that could help further advance various sectors in the future.
The memorandum goes on to say the countries will leverage the “genius of their scientists” to make sure they remain “leader of the pack” on quantum developments.
The focus here will be on developing quantum computing, quantum algorithms and harnessing cross-border collaboration to enhance this advanced technology.
It comes at a time of heightened interest and competition in quantum technology, particularly between the US and China.
‘Frontier innovation’
The US and the UK will also work toward enhanced research security, telecommunications and cyber to “support secure development of cutting-edge technologies that deliver real benefits for the Participants’ citizens.”
One area of interest here is the development of 6G technology between the two countries.
The memorandum goes on to reveal that this will include supporting universities and research organisations, and collaborating on scaling advanced tech to help benefit the population in both countries.