Upside Ep #59 — UK at a Crossroads, AI Surge, Defence Tensions, H1B Shock

Yes we're European VCs so YES we're talking AI and defence! But there's still more of the pie to eat, so dig in.02:00 🇬🇧 UK in the doldrums* Little to no growth (1.5% vs US 3.8%).* Inflation stubborn at 3.8%.* 130k jobs lost since last budget.* Housing, Heathrow, HS2 — stalled megaprojects.06:30 📉 Structural weaknesses* UK pensions: only 4.4% in UK equities (vs 50% in past).* FTSE = $2.8T — smaller than Apple alone.* R&D spend at 1.7% vs US 3.5%.10:00 🚀 Reasons for optimism* Revolut hits 70m users, Canary Wharf HQ, £3bn UK investment.* UK AI leaders: Wayve, ElevenLabs, Synthesia, Cleo.* Nvidia building Europe’s biggest GPU cluster (120k Blackwells by 2026).13:00 🤝 Trump visit & £150bn US deal* Breakdown: £90bn Blackstone, £22bn Microsoft, £5bn Google, £1.5bn Palantir, £3.9bn Prologis.* UK pledges $80bn procurement from US tech/defence.* Historic scale, but execution challenges loom.18:30 📝 What the UK must do — 5-Point Plan1. Regulatory bonfire2. Pension capital unlocked3. Energy independence4. Planning revolution5. Startup Central (“29th Regime”)24:00 🌍 H1B debacle* US slaps $100k fee on new H1Bs (was $1.5k).* Big Tech shrugs, startups squeezed.* Europe’s opening: 24h visas for £100k+ roles could flip the script.28:30 🤖 AI Corner* Nvidia invests $100B into OpenAI — vertical integration play.* Cohere hits $7B with AMD deal; Modular raises $250M to break CUDA lock-in.* DeepSeek achieves GPT-4-level performance at 1/20th cost.* JLR cyberattack halts production for 3+ weeks; systemic risk exposed.37:00 🛡️ Defence Corner* Russian drones breach NATO airspace — first NATO shots fired.* Copenhagen airport shut, Polish & Baltic incursions.* NATO launches Eastern Sentry, Europe boosts spend to 3.5% GDP.* Defence unicorns rising: Helsing ($12B), Quantum Systems, Tekever.45:00 💸 Deals of the Week* nScale: £1.1B raise at £3B — Europe’s newest AI datacenter unicorn.* Ōura: $875M raise at $11B valuation.* Aerospacelab: $110M for satellite constellation.On today: Dan, Mads, Lomax, Andrew.