Chancellor John Healey is to spend £100m of taxpayers' cash on an AI pandemic lab backed by OpenAI and Anthropic

The AI giants' pledge of up to £200m comes as model credits and computing power, not cash. Healey will formally confirm the 'world-first' lab at Wednesday's Budget, alongside £120m more for the AI Security Institute. A further £70m is earmarked for a cyber-threat centre after a PHP security flaw knocked 32 government services offline. Healey promises a 'distinctively British' approach to AI.

AI minister Kanishka Narayan hails the lab as a 'major new global institution'.

Healey's package also sets aside £10m a year to study how AI will hit jobs.

Officials say the lab will develop medical 'countermeasures' against new pathogens.