Business
The British business winners and losers after US £150bn investment pledge
Donald Trump’s UK state visit coincided with an announcement that US firms will invest round £150 billion into the UK.
The trip comes amid a key period for global trade, after the US president’s tariff plans led to significant trade tensions earlier this year.
Firms in some sectors have announced fresh commitments to pump billions into the UK, in a potential boost for Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
However, some industries criticised a lack of trade deal support and tough investment conditions in the UK.
So, which sectors have been winners and losers this week:
Winners
Tech
Technology firms have been at the forefront of the major investment deals into the UK.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Trump announced a “tech prosperity deal” will see the UK and US co-operate in areas including artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and nuclear power.
America’s top technology companies announced £31 billion of investment alongside the announcement.
These included a commitment by Microsoft to invest £22 billion in the UK to fund an expansion of Britain’s AI infrastructure and the construction of the country’s largest AI supercomputer.
Nvidia boss Jensen Huang hailed a “big week for AI in the UK” as the US chip giant committed to supporting the development of the supercomputer.
The firm agreed to deploy 120,000 advanced processors across the UK to help improve infrastructure across the British AI sector.
Google committed £5 billion of investment, focusing on improvements in research and development and AI infrastructure.
There was also a raft of smaller investments by tech companies including AI cloud computing company CoreWeave, Salesforce and AI Pathfinder.
Defence
US software company Palantir announced plans to invest £1.5 billion in the UK’s defence sector, with funding going into the development of artificial intelligence-powered capabilities to speed up decision making, military planning and targeting.
Defence Secretary John Healey said the investment was a “major vote of confidence” for the UK.
Palantir said it plans to establish the UK as its European headquarters for defence, creating 350 “high-skilled” new jobs.
Manufacturing and R&D
There were a number of investments such as £3.9 billion from Prologis to drive growth in life sciences and advanced manufacturing.
US engineering firm Stax committed £37 million to expand its operations and pioneer emission-reducing technology used at ports.
Infrastructure
Private equity giant Blackstone said it plans to invest around £100 billion into assets in the UK over the next decade, in the single largest investment commitment.
This includes £10 billion of previously announced investment into its UK data centres.
Nuclear engineering company Amentum confirmed a £150 million investment in the UK and said it plans to create more than 3,000 new jobs, to increase its UK workforce by over 50 per cent over the next four years.
X-Energy and Centrica also said they plan to build up to 12 advanced modular reactors.
Losers
Steel
The steel industry was among the main sectors left disappointed by the president’s visit.
Plans for US tariffs on UK steel exports to be scrapped have been shelved, with the UK pausing its push to bring the levy down to zero.
UK steel exports to the US currently face a 25 per cent tariff, compared with 50 per cent for other nations.
Earlier this year, the UK and the US agreed for some UK steel to be exempt from tariffs.
Gareth Stace, director-general of industry trade association UK Steel, said it was “disappointing”.
Pharmaceuticals
As part of investments between the countries, UK pharmaceutical giant GSK revealed plans to put nearly £22 billion into US R&D and manufacturing over the next five years.
The government said the deal will “strengthen UK-US life sciences ties” but it comes amid a challenging backdrop for investment for the sector in the UK.
Last week, US-based Merck said its UK operation will scrap plans for a £1 billion site in Kings Cross, which had been due to open in 2027.
Bosses blamed the government for paying too little for medicines and not investing enough in the sector, as it confirmed the move, which will impact around 125 jobs.
Days later, AstraZeneca announced it had paused plans to invest £200 million at a Cambridge research site in the latest major blow for the sector.
Industry bosses told MPs this week that the “difficult” environment in the UK and pressure on pricing had made the UK a less attractive investment environment than other countries such as the US.
Mr Trump told reporters on Thursday that pharmaceutical firms were coming back to the US from other countries.
“Car companies are moving in, AI is moving in, everybody’s coming in… The drug companies are coming back, they all want to be there – they sort of have to be there – but they all want to be there.”
Two ads promoting British beef and milk have been banned after television presenter and environmental campaigner Chris Packham complained that they misled consumers about the products’ carbon footprints.
Both ads for the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s (AHDB) Let’s Eat Balanced campaign used the carbon footprint of British beef and milk to promote the products, firstly stating: “British beef not only tastes great, but has a carbon footprint that’s half the global average*.”
The asterisk linked to text that stated: “Full lifecycle emissions of CO2 eq (carbon dioxide equivalent) per kg of beef.”
The ad for milk stated: “British milk not only tastes good, but is also produced to world-class standards, and has a carbon footprint a third lower than the global average.”
Packham complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the ads, and specifically the carbon footprint claims, were misleading as they did not reflect the full environmental impact of British meat and dairy.
The AHDB said the ads’ mention of carbon emissions would be understood in relation to the environmental impact of beef and milk that occurred between the “cradle-to-retail” stages.
But the ASA said the average consumer “being reasonably well-informed, observant and circumspect” would understand the claims to apply beyond the retail stage and include actions such as cooking and wastage.
The ASA said: “While we acknowledged the potential difficulties in producing post-retail emissions data, the claims in the ads suggested those emissions were included and we therefore expected the evidence provided to also include them.
“We therefore concluded that the evidence presented was insufficient to support the full life-cycle claims in the ads, which was how the average consumer was likely to interpret them.
“We reminded AHDB that environmental claims should be based on the full life cycle unless the ad stated otherwise.”
AHDB’s director of communications and market development, Will Jackson, said: “Let’s Eat Balanced is doing what it was designed to do, providing clear, factual, evidence-led information about British food, nutrition and farming standards.
“Since the investigation began, we have conducted independent consumer research which found that the majority of respondents interpreted these adverts as relating to the production phase only, from farm to retail.
“This research provides important insight into consumer understanding and supports our belief that consumers were not misled by the information we shared in these two specific adverts.”
BENGALURU: India’s Gen Z workforce is embracing what experts describe as “portfolio careers” – balancing multiple professional identities and income streams simultaneously. New research from LinkedIn shows that 75% of Gen Z entrepreneurs in India now manage multiple income streams, significantly higher than the 62% among Gen X entrepreneurs. The findings point to a growing preference among younger professionals for flexibility, autonomy and diversified sources of income. “We’re also seeing the rise of the ‘portfolio era’, with more professionals creating multiple income streams and redefining what a career can look like. This shift is making entrepreneurship more accessible than ever before,” said LinkedIn India country manager Kumaresh Pattabiraman.Rather than depending on a single full-time role, many professionals are simultaneously building businesses, freelancing, consulting, creating online content and monetising specialised skills through digital platforms. The trend comes amid a broader rise in entrepreneurial activity in India. LinkedIn recorded a 104% year-on-year increase in members adding “Founder” to their profiles – the highest growth among all global markets.AI is also emerging as a major enabler of this shift. The report found that 85% of Gen Z entrepreneurs consider AI and digital tools important to their business operations.
Sam Altman said Elon Musk tried many times for total control of OpenAI, which he’s now suing.
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