U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Britain late on Tuesday for an unprecedented second state visit at which the two nations will seal investment deals, a renewal of a "special relationship" Prime Minister Keir Starmer is keen to champion.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and British finance minister Rachel Reeves led events before Trump's arrival, announcing a "Transatlantic taskforce" to deepen work between two of the world's largest financial centres.
Trump will then be greeted by King Charles on Wednesday, for a day of pomp at Windsor Castle, a regal show of soft power that Starmer hopes will offer him protection from possible pitfalls during the trip.
The visit should provide Trump with a diversion less than a week after a close ally, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, was shot dead, a killing that has appeared to affect the president deeply.
Starmer is also looking to turn the focus onto geopolitics and investment after enduring a tough couple of weeks that have undermined his authority. First, he was forced to fire his deputy and then six days later his ambassador to the U.S., Peter Mandelson, over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Starmer wants to pitch Britain as a destination for U.S. investment, closely aligning its financial services, tech and energy sectors with larger U.S. peers to try to drive much-needed economic growth at home.
To that end, business executives including Nvidia Corp, CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI's Sam Altman are due to attend, while billions of dollars of business deals are expected to be announced.
Micosoft said it would invest over US$30 billion in Britain over the next four years, while Google said it would invest 5 billion pounds ($US6.8 billion), partly on a new data centre close to London that would help meet demand for AI services.
A spokesperson for Starmer described the state visit as "a historic opportunity" coming "at a crucial time for global stability and security".
"The prime minister will discuss the challenges that both our countries face, and the opportunities, as we enter a new era of our deep and unparalleled relationship," the spokesperson told reporters.
Starmer will turn the focus to foreign affairs on Thursday when he hosts Trump at his Chequers country residence and will attempt to draw a line under his handling of the departures of his deputy, Angela Rayner, and Mandelson.
He gave both his full-throated support before being forced to let them go, prompting questions over his political judgment at a time when Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK party holds a hefty lead the polls.
Mandelson's ties to the late Epstein that led to his sacking could present Starmer with a tricky moment with Trump, whose administration had close ties to the former ambassador and whose own relationship with the financier has also come under scrutiny.
Starmer has justified his abrupt sacking of Mandelson last week by saying he was not aware of the depth of the ex-ambassador's ties to Epstein and Trump has denied writing him a birthday letter which Democrats in the House of Representatives made public.
On Wednesday, Trump and his wife, Melania, will be treated to British royal pageantry, including a carriage tour, a state banquet, a flypast by military aircraft and a gun salute.
A day later, Starmer welcomes Trump to Chequers, a 16th century manor house in the southern English countryside, to discuss investment, tariffs on steel and aluminium, ending Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the situation in Gaza.
Both nations will have sizeable delegations and will be largely protected from planned anti-Trump protests. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was greeted by Britain's newly-appointed foreign minister, Yvette Cooper, when he arrived on Tuesday.
Britain and the United States have agreed a technology pact to boost ties in AI, quantum computing and civil nuclear energy, with top U.S. firms led by Microsoft pledging 31 billion pounds (US$42 billion) in UK investments.
The "Tech Prosperity Deal" is part of U.S. President Donald Trump's second state visit to Britain, which will include a day of pomp at Windsor Castle on Wednesday, hosted by King Charles and the royal family.
Britain said the pact included joint efforts to develop AI models for healthcare, expand quantum computing capabilities and streamline civil nuclear projects. It added that it would support economic growth, scientific research and energy security in both countries.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the deal had the potential to shape the future of millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic, and deliver growth and security.
The U.S. is Britain's single largest country trading partner, and its big tech companies have already invested billions of dollars in their UK operations.
Starmer, under pressure to reverse years of weak economic growth, now wants to pitch Britain as a destination for further investment by opting for the light touch regulation favoured by the United States in areas such as AI, as opposed to the more interventionist approach of the European Union.
The Trump administration has criticised European online safety laws and digital taxes, including those in Britain, but they were not part of the discussions over the pact.
Under the deals announced, chipmaker Nvidia said it would deploy 120,000 graphics processing units across Britain - its largest rollout in Europe to date.
It is working to deploy up to 60,000 Grace Blackwell Ultra chips with UK-based Nscale, which will partner OpenAI in a UK leg of the U.S. company's giant Stargate project and tie-up with Microsoft to establish Britain's largest AI supercomputer.
Microsoft said it would invest 22 billion pounds in total to expand cloud and AI infrastructure as well as in the supercomputer, which will be in Loughton, north-east London.
Satya Nadella, chair and CEO of Microsoft, said it wanted to ensure that America remained a trusted and reliable tech partner for Britain. Its president, Brad Smith, said relations had improved hugely since the "dark days" before the UK's antitrust regulator dropped its opposition to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, saying he felt "enormously better".
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David Hogan, vice president for enterprise at Nvidia, told reporters the investments would "truly make the UK an AI maker, not an AI taker".
Google announced a 5 billion-pound investment, including a new data centre in Waltham Cross, north of London, and continued support for AI research through its DeepMind project.
Cloud computing firm CoreWeave said its 1.5 billion pound backing would fund energy-efficient data centres in partnership with Scottish firm DataVita, bringing its total UK investment to 2.5 billion pounds.
Other firms announcing commitments include Salesforce, Scale AI, BlackRock, Oracle, Amazon Web Services and AI Pathfinder, with investments ranging from hundreds of millions to several billion pounds. - September 17, 2025
