Britain must be a magnet for the world's best minds

Times

5 hours ago

After years of ceding ground to Silicon Valley and Shenzhen, Europe's tech sector is waking up. Momentum is building.
From the European Commission's bold innovation agenda to the energy of VivaTech in Paris, the mood has shifted — from complacency to conviction. Paris is brimming with policy ambition, fresh capital and a clear determination to lead. The European Union's proposed '28th regime', a unified framework to streamline the path for scale-ups, could make cross-border growth smoother and faster.
The UK now stands at a crossroads. This wave of momentum should serve as a wake-up call. The UK must not just watch it but lead it — and that means choosing collaboration over isolation. It can lead with a sovereign yet collaborative tech strategy. Doubling down on talent, capital and scale is essential if we want to stay ahead.
Nowhere was this urgency more evident than at London Tech Week, where Sir Keir Starmer shared a stage with the Nvidia founder Jensen Huang. Their presence signalled political will and global confidence in the UK's tech potential. Huang called AI 'the great equaliser' and highlighted Britain's strength in research, talent and innovation. Just as he conceded Europe's lack of computer infrastructure, the chancellor announced a £1 billion UK supercomputer investment. The message was clear: the UK matters.
And indeed it does. Britain's tech sector is now worth $1.2 trillion. Start-ups raised more than $7 billion in the first half of 2025. The AI ecosystem is deepening. Crucially, there is growing alignment between government ambition and founder energy.
Rachel Reeves's recent spending review reinforced that, with £11 billion for defence and billions more for health, digital skills and digital transformation. These priorities echoed across Founders Forum Global, also held last week, where defence innovators like Helsing and Quantum Systems laid out bold visions for the future. With global tensions rising from Ukraine to Israel and Iran, the convergence of capital, talent and state support around defence tech is not just timely, it's urgent.
Healthcare is another bright spot. The government's £10 billion commitment to NHS digital transformation is turning ambition into action. Last week global leaders like Toyin Ajayi of Cityblock, Marius Nacht of aMoon and Noubar Afeyan, co-founder of Moderna, spoke powerfully about AI's role in revolutionising drug discovery and patient care. The future of healthcare will be faster, more tailored, and driven by founders who understand both science and systems.
What stood out most last week, however, was the growing optimism among founders themselves. International entrepreneurs who were hesitating to build in the UK now see fresh promise here.
But that momentum is fragile. Uncertainty around tax policy, especially the end of the non-dom regime, has made founders wary. There is quiet hope that the government understands the risk of talent flight and is preparing bold schemes to attract tomorrow's builders and backers. Timing is critical, particularly as the US apparently prepares to roll out more competitive talent and capital incentives.
A key opportunity is reforming the UK's enterprise management incentive (EMI) scheme, which lets cash-strapped start-ups offer tax-efficient equity stakes. Today's start-ups are scaling faster and raising more; the EMI must evolve to match that ambition and current thresholds risk capping potential. A fit-for-purpose EMI model would better reward early teams taking risks and help the UK compete for top talent.
The listing environment must improve too. The recent announcement that the UK-born fintech giant Wise is moving its primary listing abroad is a stark warning, part of a wider pattern of high-growth companies questioning whether the UK still supports their global ambitions.
There are green shoots. Mansion House reforms and the launch of Pisces, the world's first regulated intermittent share-trading system, show promise. Pisces allows qualified investors to buy and sell private-company shares without a full stock market listing, unlocking new pools of capital. These reforms can support founders and early employees, giving them access to liquidity and the chance to go again, fuelling a cycle of serial entrepreneurship.
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Credit is due to the science secretary, Peter Kyle, for pushing bold action on AI, from hiring 1,000 technologists in Shoreditch to protecting research and development budgets. These are clear signals of political intent. But founders, UK-based and international, need to see that urgency shared across all of government. The entire system must align and listen.
Last week we brought together some of the sharpest minds in tech: Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive; the Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale; Daniel Ek, co-founder of Spotify; Sir Demis Hassabis of DeepMind fame; and the founders of Perplexity, Anduril, Mistral, BYD, Trip.com, Palo Alto Networks, Arm, Netflix, Prosus and more. The conversations were ambitious but grounded in realism. Building globally competitive technology takes time, resilience and the courage to be contrarian.
At the heart of this energy is a belief that we may be on the cusp of an age of abundance. Breakthroughs in AI, energy and longevity are no longer theoretical. Companies such as Proxima Fusion, Commonwealth Fusion Systems and First Light are bringing near-limitless, clean energy within reach, a shift that could transform productivity and growth across every sector.
Platforms like Lovable are lowering the barriers to entrepreneurship, enabling anyone, regardless of technical background, to build and scale. The infrastructure to launch world-class ventures is becoming radically more accessible.
But as acceleration increases, so do the stakes. The global war for talent is intensifying. The UK must remain a magnet for the world's best minds. If Britain wants to lead, it must act decisively. That means expanding and simplifying visas, reducing friction for international founders, encouraging early teams with the right incentives and committing to long-term policy stability. Even bolder ideas, like exempting international entrepreneurs from wealth tax on foreign assets, could prove decisive. These aren't just economic tweaks; they're strategic bets in a high-stakes global race.
If the UK can seize this moment, matching founder energy with political courage, we won't just reignite our own tech ecosystem. We'll lead Europe into a new era of abundance.
Brent Hoberman is executive chairman and co-founder of Founders Forum Group, Founders Factory and Firstminute Capital