The future of Edinburgh’s exascale supercomputer is still unclear.
The University of Edinburgh told BBC News that Professor Sir Peter Mathieson, its principal and vice-chancellor, was urgently seeking to meet Mr Kyle following the news.
There are only a small number of such powerful machines in the world, with an earlier version being preserved in Bristol.
The new funding was announced in October last year and the University of Edinburgh had already spent £31m on building homes.
It was considered a priority project by the previous government.
The machine would have been 50 times faster than any current computer in the UK, the university said at the time.
“Exascale will help researchers model every aspect of the world, test scientific theories, and improve products and services in areas such as artificial intelligence, drug discovery, climate change, astrophysics, and advanced engineering,” it says on its website.
A spokesperson for the university told the BBC it “has led the way in supercomputing in the UK for decades”.
“(He) stands ready to work with government to support the next phase of this technology in the UK, to unlock its benefits for industry, public services and society,” they added.
Angus Robertson MSP, the Scottish Government’s cabinet secretary for the constitution, external affairs and culture, simply described the development as: “bad news”., external
Sue Daley, director of technology and innovation at techUK, said ministers now needed to set out a new way forward.
She told BBC News: “Investment in large-scale computing is essential to the scientific advances that will grow our economy and improve our lives.
“The UK has sent clear signals about its ambitions to welcome a new generation of computers to enable cutting-edge research, including in AI.
“In a highly competitive global environment, the government must come up with new proposals quickly. Otherwise, we risk losing out to our competitors.”
Last week, DSIT announced that Matt Clifford, one of the organisers of the inaugural AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in November 2023, had been tasked with developing an action plan to identify new “AI opportunities” – including infrastructure.
The technology sector is seen as a valuable part of the UK economy and therefore important to the economic growth that Labour is committed to prioritising.
In a recent report, technology network Tech Nation gave it a market value of $1.1 trillion (£863 billion) in the first quarter of 2024.
Additional reporting by Graham Fraser
