AMD commits £2B to UK AI and deploys the world's first pure photonic AI network with London startup Oriole — TFN

AMD has announced a £2bn, five-year investment in UK AI infrastructure, revealed at London Tech Week, spanning supercomputing, research partnerships, and a first-of-its-kind photonic networking deployment.

As part of the investment, AMD is collaborating with UCL spinout Oriole Networks to deploy the world’s first large-scale AI system powered by a pure photonic network, as part of the UK government’s £50M ARIA Scaling Inference Lab.

The deployment marks Oriole’s first commercial rollout — with wider industry rollout across multiple accelerator platforms targeted for 2027.

AMD, the US chip designer, has committed up to £2 billion over five years to accelerate AI innovation in the UK, announced today by CEO Lisa Su at London Tech Week.

The package spans national supercomputing infrastructure, university research partnerships, and a first-of-its-kind deployment with a London startup that is about to do something no commercial operator has done before: run a large-scale AI system where the network connecting the chips carries no electrons at all.