What was agreed
The UK and Norway have signed a joint statement of intent to deepen cooperation on artificial intelligence, covering areas from compute infrastructure to defence and international governance. The statement followed a meeting between Kanishka Narayan, UK Minister for Artificial Intelligence, and Torgeir Micaelsen, Norwegian Minister for Digitalisation and Public Governance, on the margins of the Atlantic Futures Forum on 12 November.
The document is an agreement to explore collaboration rather than a funded programme. No budget, timeline or specific projects are set out in the statement. It builds on the Joint Declaration on the Norwegian-UK Strategic Partnership agreed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on 16 December 2024, adding AI as a new strand of that existing relationship.
What the two sides want to do
The statement lists six areas the ministers committed to explore:
- Cooperation on compute infrastructure and hardware, including secure hosting of national compute assets and public workloads, and possible commercial adoption of semiconductors and AI hardware from either country.
- Closer ties between the UK’s Taskforce RAID and Norway’s Defence Centre for Data and AI, aimed at joint development and testing of AI-enabled defence capabilities.
- Strengthened cooperation between the UK AI Security Institute (AISI) and AI Norway, including sharing best practice on AI security, testing and evaluation, with input from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Norway’s NSM.
- Dialogue on making international AI governance more interoperable, including work across multilateral forums and international standards.
- Exchange of experience on policies supporting AI research and innovation, drawing on the UK’s Industrial Strategy and Norway’s industrial policy.
- Discussion of how AI converges with other emerging technologies, including quantum, biotechnology and robotics, and what that means for safety and governance.
What it means for UK industry
For UK AI companies, defence contractors and researchers, the statement signals where government attention is likely to go next, particularly on compute hosting, semiconductor adoption and defence AI testing through Taskforce RAID. Firms working in cybersecurity and AI evaluation may see closer engagement between AISI and its Norwegian counterpart as a channel for sharing technical standards with a Nordic partner that has its own energy and compute strengths.
However, there is nothing in the statement that creates new funding, contracts or regulatory obligations for UK businesses right now. It is a statement of political intent, not a scheme with an application process or a commercial opportunity to bid for.
What happens next
The two ministers agreed to stay in regular contact to build on the cooperation outlined in the statement. No further meeting date, review point or delivery deadline is specified in the document. UK companies and researchers with interests in defence AI, compute infrastructure or AI security testing should watch for any follow-up announcements from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology or the Cabinet Office setting out concrete projects or funding arising from this agreement.