UK to spend £100m on a 'world first' AI Biosecurity Lab, with up to £200m in credits from OpenAI and Anthropic

The UK government said on 24 October 2026 that it will set up a national AI Biosecurity Lab (AIBL), which it describes as the world’s first organisation dedicated to AI biosecurity. The plan is part of the package to be presented in Wednesday’s Budget.

Money and partners

• £100 million of government funding for the lab, within a £165 million National AI Biosecurity Initiative; the other £65 million goes to bio-surveillance and medical countermeasures for priority pathogens.
• Up to £200 million in commitments from AI companies: according to GOV.UK, OpenAI will provide £100 million in compute and model credits and access to its most capable relevant models via its Rosalind Biodefense programme, and Anthropic up to £100 million in model credits, trusted access and technical support.
• Partnerships with Google DeepMind and London-based Basecamp Research are also planned.

What it is for

The government says AIBL will use frontier AI to help detect biological threats earlier and to accelerate the discovery, development and testing of vaccines, treatments and other countermeasures. The BBC notes that full details of the lab’s role and remit have not yet been published.

Other AI security spending

The package also includes £120 million more for the AI Security Institute (AISI), £60 million for a “National Cyber Shield” using agentic AI, and £70 million for a National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (NERV) Centre to find cyber weaknesses in critical infrastructure. AI Minister Kanishka Narayan called the lab a “major new global institution”.