Vallance sheet
AI Taskforce, Issue 1683

BIG tech certainly has an ally in Andy Burnham’s choice of chair for his AI taskforce.

Before becoming Keir Starmer’s science minister in July 2024, Lord (Patrick) Vallance spent six months as “strategic counsellor” to the Tony Blair Institute, itself bankrolled to the tune of £250m by Larry Ellison, founder and executive chairman of Oracle, whose Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) is busily building its own empire in Oxford.

While he was science minister, Vallance met with Ellison’s institute, Blair’s institute and Oracle 16 times.

Line of enquiry
Particularly important to Ellison’s body, according to freedom of information releases, was the reopening of the Cowley branch train line outside Oxford to allow tech brains to get to EIT’s home on the Oxford Science Park campus.

Last October the government duly announced the line’s reopening, backed by £120m of taxpayer money as part of a wider £500m government package for the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, which Vallance also chairs.

Cash in chips
Oracle is reinventing itself as one of the world’s biggest AI players, already spending more than $50bn annually on infrastructure such as chips and data centres. Among its plans is a $5bn cloud computing investment allowing it to sell AI services to the UK government.

A good contact at the helm of the government taskforce pushing it all through won’t do any harm.

More top stories in the latest issue:

QUESTIONS OF TRUSS
Andy Burnham noted that new shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith had welcomed the Truss mini-budget – but so had one of his own Treasury team…

PART-TIME SPART
After an activist who has backed the Iranian regime was appointed to the Green party’s internal council, we uncover some shocking online posts by her.

POINT OF NO RETURN
Data obtained by Private Eye shows the Access to Work scheme is taking months to review applications and rejecting more than a third.

CONFERENCE CRAWL
Gavel Basher reports from Birmingham on Reform UK’s conference, featuring Jeremy Kyle’s bladder and Lee Anderson’s wisecracks.

BRUM DEALINGS
Reform’s electoral success has seen big business keen to engage with the party – but will some companies now be regretting that policy?

BAYEUX’S MARKET
Peter Thiel was invited to inspect the Bayeux tapestry even before King Brian – but his tech firm Palantir is becoming less welcome in European circles.