UK Backs £100m AI Biosecurity Lab With OpenAI and Anthropic
The UK will invest £100m in a new AI Biosecurity Lab, with OpenAI and Anthropic adding up to £200m in compute and model credits rather than cash.
The UK government will put £100m into a new AI Biosecurity Lab that will use advanced AI to spot and respond to biological threats. OpenAI and Anthropic will add up to £200m between them, the Cabinet Office said on Saturday.
The government describes the lab as the world's first dedicated AI biosecurity organisation. It will start with two tasks: finding new biological threats early, and speeding up work on vaccines and treatments.
Contributions are mostly not cash
The companies' share is not cash. OpenAI will provide £100m in compute and model credits, plus access to its models through its Rosalind Biodefense programme. Anthropic will provide up to £100m in model credits, model access and technical support.
Google DeepMind will also join research projects and may offer access to its Gemini and science models. UK firm Basecamp Research will share its AI biology models.
Structure and open questions
The lab will be an independent non-profit, run along the lines of the AI Security Institute. The announcement did not name a director, a site or a start date, and it gave no time period for the £100m.
Several public bodies will take part, including the UK Health Security Agency and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. The medicines regulator, the MHRA, will work with the lab on how to regulate medicines designed by AI.
Part of a wider package
The lab belongs to a package of more than £600m for AI security, set out ahead of Wednesday's Budget. It also includes £120m for the AI Security Institute. Chancellor John Healey announced the package, and AI minister Kanishka Narayan called the lab a major new global institution.
The deal follows a similar offer earlier this month, when Nvidia pledged $250m of compute to UK AI safety research, again in computing power rather than cash. Together, the announcements show a pattern: the government supplies funding while leading AI developers contribute infrastructure and models, tying public biosecurity work closely to private technology providers.
