UK government invests the third most in AI business, global data reveals

Recent reports suggest AI investments are predicted to approach $200bn globally by 2025, with countries competing to enjoy the benefits artificial intelligence has on productivity and the economy.

Which countries have invested the most in AI between 2019 to 2023? AI statistics from AIPRM compared the investment of each country with the United States, who are currently leading the way for AI investment.

Key findings: 

• The United States invests the most in AI, with a total of £261,350m spent in the last five years.
• The United Kingdom comes third with a total of £20,317m investment in AI over the past five years. When assessed against GDP, their spending is one-third less compared to US investment per thousand dollars of GDP.
• When looking at the investment relative to the country’s overall economic output, Singapore is leading in AI spending, with $15.01 for every thousand dollars of GDP –  16% more than the US investment (per thousand $GDP).

Top 10 countries with the most AI investment (2019 – 2023)

Rank	Country	2023 investments (millions GBP)	% of investment increase compared to 2019	Total investment in last 5 years (millions GBP)
1	United States	£54,010	65.9%	£261,350
2	China	£11,986	-30.5%	£105,531
3	United Kingdom	£2,798	0.2%	£20,317
4	India	£3,029	261.3%	£12,844
5	Germany	£1,438	-11.2%	£11,375
6	Canada	£1,644	40.2%	£9,909
7	South Korea	£1,672	238.5%	£8,232
8	France	£1,474	74.7%	£8,102
9	Sweden	£2,070	2310.2%	£6,587
10	Singapore	£1,533	191.7%	£5,572

 

(Source: AIPRM via OECD and World Bank)

AI statistics from AIPRM, has found that the United States is the country investing the most in AI, with £261,350m spent in the last five years. They have invested £54,010m in 2023 alone, a 65.94% increase from that of 2019.

China places second with £105,531m spent on AI between 2019 to 2023, around 60% less than the United States. The country’s investment in AI has been slowing down since 2019, totalling £11,986m in 2023, about a third less than their spending in 2019.

In third place is the United Kingdom with a £20,317m investment across the same period, almost 13 times less than the US by comparison.

The other tech giant country in Asia, India, ranks fourth place with a £12,844m investment in AI in the last five years. The country exceeds Germany, who ranks fifth by nearly  13% (£1,469m).

The country with the most significant growth in AI investment in the past five years is Sweden – an astonishing 2310%!

Please see the full datasheet with 53 countries included here on Onedrive.

Top 10 countries outpacing the U.S in AI investment relative to GDP

Rank	Country	AI investment during 2019 – 2023  (per thousand dollars of GDP)	AI investment during 2019 – 2023 as a % of U.S. investment  (per thousand $ GDP)
1	Singapore	15.01	116.3
2	Sweden	14.13	109.5
3	United States	12.90	100.0
4	Estonia	10.89	84.4
5	United Kingdom	8.32	64.5
6	China	7.39	57.2
7	South Korea	6.21	48.2
8	Canada	5.82	45.1
9	India	4.77	37.0
10	Switzerland	4.01	31.1

When AI investment statistics are judged against the country’s GDP, Singapore comes out on top. Despite placing tenth in terms of the amount of money spent, their investment over the past 5 years is equivalent to 1.5% of its current GDP (in 2022). When compared to the U.S, their rate of AI investment is outpacing the U.S by 16% per thousand $GDP.

This is followed closely by Sweden whose investment in AI is over 14 dollars per thousand $ GDP – equivalent to 1.4%. They are also the only other nation investing more than the U.S in AI in relative wealth terms (over 9%).

The United States is investing $12.90 per thousand $GDP (1.29%), followed by Estonia who is investing $10.89 per thousand $ GDP (1.089%).

Coming in fifth place is the UK. Between 2019 and 2023, the UK’s level of AI investment stands at 64.46%, meaning nearly a third less spending compared to US investment per thousand $GDP.

Methodology

1. AI statistics from AIPRM wanted to find out which countries in the world have invested the most in AI in the past five years (2019 – 2023).
2. To do this, they first collected data from OECD, which estimates venture capital financial investment (i.e. investments in business startups) in AI based on data sourced from Preqin. The data show which countries are attracting investments from interested parties.
3. Investment data was then compared to the country’s GDP as of 2022, allowing a more fair comparison to be drawn between all the countries. This was done by calculating the investments of the past five  years per capita (per $1 thousand USD).
4. Finally, for each country, these investments per capita were calculated as a percentage of USA investments per capita, to show which countries are ahead/are behind the USA in terms of AI investment. E.g. China is at 57%, therefore it’s around half the USA investment per capita.
5. Data from the past five  years was used. Any country missing data from these years was excluded. Israel data has been removed from the ranking due to ongoing conflicts.
6. All data was collected in dollars and the currency exchange rate was taken on 12th December, 2023.
7. Data was collected in December 2023 and is correct as of then.

29/01/2024