The five things governments must get right to attract AI investment

What it takes to win the race for AI investment

by · TechRadar

Opinion By Matt Hawkins published 5 May 2026

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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Governments around the world are racing to position themselves as leaders in AI. Policy announcements, funding packages and national strategies are coming thick and fast, all aimed at capturing a share of what is widely seen as the next industrial revolution.

In March the UK announced a national plan to build the infrastructure and capacity needed to power AI, innovation and economic growth across the country. The US has an action plan to achieve ‘global dominance.’

The Japanese AI Promotion Act, fully in force since September 2025, aims to position Japan as the ‘world’s most AI-friendly country.’

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Matt Hawkins

CEO & founder of CUDO Compute.

But there is a disconnect at the heart of many of these efforts. AI is still being treated primarily as a software or innovation challenge, when in reality it is increasingly constrained by physical infrastructure.

The ability to train, fine tune and run models at scale depends on access to compute, which in turn depends on land, power, and the speed at which infrastructure can be deployed.

That shift is already influencing where investment flows. Companies are making decisions based not on where AI policy sounds strongest, but on where infrastructure is available, affordable and operational.

If governments want to attract long-term AI investment, they need to focus less on abstract ambition and more on the conditions that allow deployment to happen in practice – land, power, and compute.

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