Gov grants £36m to Cambridge supercomputer

The funding cements Cambridge’s position within the UK’s AI Research Resource, expanding national access to high-performance AI computing

The government plans to expand national computing capacity by a factor of twenty by 2030RYAN TEH FOR VARSITY

by Antara Rao

Tuesday February 17 2026, 9:13pm

The UK government has announced that it will invest £36 million to expand the computing capacity of the University of Cambridge’s Dawn supercomputer, which is set to increase its power sixfold by spring 2026.

The funding will enhance Cambridge’s role within the UK’s AI Research Resource (AIRR), which is a national programme providing researchers and startups with free access to high-performance AI computing.

Of the total amount invested, £16 million will come from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with a further £20 million provided by the national funding agency UK Research and Innovation.

The upgrade will equip Dawn, located on the University’s West Cambridge site, with advanced AI accelerator chips, and support the development of a new system known as Zenith, expected to come online next spring. It is hoped that this enhanced system will make cutting-edge AI computing resources available free of charge to academic researchers and early-stage companies.

Cambridge’s pro-vice chancellor for research, Professor John Aston, said: “This investment marks an important milestone for the UK’s AI Research Resource, expanding the power of Cambridge’s Dawn supercomputer and strengthening our national computing ecosystem.”

He added that the investment “will give researchers, clinicians and innovators the tools they need to drive breakthroughs that improve public services.”

Kanishka Narayan, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for AI and Online Safety, said that researchers and startups have been “held back by a lack of access” to computing power.

“This investment changes that – giving British innovators the tools to compete with the biggest players and develop AI that improves lives,” Narayan continued.

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The chip that will now be available with this extra investment is one of the most advanced AI processors in the world, according to the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology: “That means bigger datasets, more ambitious ideas and entirely new types of projects that weren’t possible before.”

Dawn has already supported more than 350 publicly funded projects, including research into personalised cancer vaccines and AI tools aimed at improving the efficiency of the NHS.

The AIRR programme was first announced in 2023 by Rishi Sunak’s government and launched nationally in July 2025, with Cambridge and Oxford, together with the three biggest research-focused universities in London, representing 82 percent of early supercomputing use.

The investment forms part of the government’s broader AI strategy, which includes plans to expand national computing capacity by a factor of 20 by 2030.

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