President Trump Signs Technology Prosperity Deal with United Kingdom
22 comments
·September 21, 2025KaiserPro
alephnerd
Not everything in the White House is going through Stephen Miller.
This announcement itself has Vance, Sankar, and Kupor's fingerprints all over it.
For tech policy this admin is a basically A16Z and Founders Fund people, but the last admin leaned Sequoia Capital.
This is why you see a lot of crypto (A16Z) this admin and GreenTech (Sequoia) the last admin.
SilverElfin
I think the crypto thing is even simpler - it’s self interest. It helps get votes on the right due to distrust in the federal reserve, it helps secure future political funds from a16z and others, and it literally makes Trump and his family rich from the meme coins.
hereme888
Good. The West would likely benefit from strong international partnerships for advancing AI, nuclear, and quantum tech.
Especially the part about helping the UK become Russia-independent for energy.
rcpt
These press releases aren't great sources of news. Anyone got a different link?
1659447091
"US firms pledge £150bn investment in UK as tech deal signed" https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2nllgl3q7o
Had posted this a few days ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45285763
It's all related afaict
bluecalm
It's not stated in the article but what US gets in return? I guess some promises of political/tax policy stability. I am curious if there is anything official though.
KaiserPro
I think the idea is that we(the UK) will buy small nuclear reactors from the US, and we'll develop ceramic uranium fuel system.
amacbride
Just the headline itself makes me think of the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” and we all know how that turned out.
snickerbockers
Okay but we also know how it started, which was not as a bilateral trade agreement. I don't think imperial japan has eternally tarnished the concept of 'prosperity' in the same way that hitler forever tarnished that style of mustache.
kkkqkqkqkqlqlql
Thought the exact same. Not even knowing the history of Japan, just from like one frame in the Bill Wurtz video where that name shows up.
mensetmanusman
Nothing binding, just talking about goals:
-The U.K. commits to buying over $80 billion from U.S. tech & defense companies over the next five years. -The U.K. firm GSK (a pharmaceutical company) announced a ~$30 billion investment in AI R&D and infrastructure in the U.S.
-There will be regulatory cooperation to speed up approvals/licensing in nuclear energy.
724324hsG
It appears that the UK and the EU will buy weapons from the US for the Ukraine war (which the US, according to Trump, provoked) while the US is busy getting Venezuela and Greenland.
Once accomplished the US will have complete energy dominance over the UK and the EU.
area51org
Anyone care to boil this down?
jfengel
It's a bunch of individual investments by large tech firms, going both ways. It wouldn't ordinarily require a government intervention, but both governments are in need of a win right now. (Brexit has limited the UK's access to Europe, and the US needs to show that the tariffs give it leverage.)
These are all fine, and some things might even actually happen. (Deals like these tend to diminish as you get closer to money actually changing hands.) International cooperation is good. It's just a little weird that it had to happen between two countries who have been explicitly rejecting international cooperation.
Applejinx
[flagged]
ycombigators
Lol.
As a Brit, I trust Trump as far as I can throw him, and he's very fat, so that's not very far.
alephnerd
Good to see some Biden-era initiatives are still sneaking through the cracks! Of course, a lot of this is 100% due to the alignment of a large portion of SV-turned-policymakers in both admins across the pond over the past 5 years.
SilverElfin
Surprising given the disagreement with Starmer on Israel and the UK’s recognition of Palestine. On the one hand, the UK’s conditions for the recognition may never be met. On the other hand, it still looks like Starmer may be rewarding the actions of October 7 and distancing themselves from the US.
1659447091
> On the one hand, the UK’s conditions for the recognition may never be met.
They just recognized it "UK formally recognises Palestinian state"
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce800enrglzo
Related post here got flagged https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45322919
fyi, See flagged post in the "active" tab https://news.ycombinator.com/active
The problem with policy announcements from the current Whitehouse is that it requires us to believe that they are making policy and that it'll be enacted lawfully.
I'm british, so this should be unvarnished good news. but I just can't imagine this will survive any time past the first bad fox news headline.