UK risks falling behind in AI race without faster telecoms upgrades, say executives

The Guardian Business Saturday 29 August 2026, 06:00 UTC By Mark Sweney 1 min read

Key Points

Planning delays and slow 5G upgrades could leave the UK unable to cope with a surge in AI-related traffic The UK risks becoming a laggard in the global AI race as crucial telecoms upgrades to harness the technology fall behind rival nations, according to senior industry executives. The infrastructure AI race has centred on the need to build datacentres, and to ensure they have access to the huge water and energy supplies required to cool and supply the computational power to train and run AI...

Planning delays and slow 5G upgrades could leave the UK unable to cope with a surge in AI-related traffic

The UK risks becoming a laggard in the global AI race as crucial telecoms upgrades to harness the technology fall behind rival nations, according to senior industry executives.

The infrastructure AI race has centred on the need to build datacentres, and to ensure they have access to the huge water and energy supplies required to cool and supply the computational power to train and run AI models.

UK (LOCATION) AI (ORG) Planning (ORG)

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