CUDO’s Matt Hawkins puts power at the centre of Britain’s AI ambitions

Matt Hawkins, CEO and co-founder of CUDO Compute, has called for power and computing infrastructure to take a central place in Britain’s AI strategy. In an open letter published on 25 June 2026, he argues that access to operational capacity will shape where AI investment and workloads ultimately settle.

A related CUDO post describes around 6GW of supply available to data centres under existing clean-energy plans, alongside approximately 125GW of demand in the grid connections queue. These are CUDO’s stated figures for different measures: available supply and queued demand. The queue is not a measure of completed projects or electricity already being consumed.

Hawkins also cites CUDO research in which 97% of UK businesses expected power availability to influence their AI deployment decisions, while 31.5% were considering moving workloads because of infrastructure constraints. The findings frame his concern that investment can move to locations where delivery is more certain.

His proposed response combines clearer delivery accountability, faster access to connections and a resilient mix of domestic and allied computing capacity. He recognises existing policy initiatives, including AI Growth Zones, while arguing that practical delivery now determines their impact.

For Bolt, the argument connects directly with the operating challenge behind AI infrastructure. Equipment, sites, energy and customer demand have different lead times. Bringing them together in a service that customers can actually use is a substantial part of an infrastructure operator’s value.

That perspective places CUDO in a wider debate about industrial capability and competitiveness. The commercial opportunity extends beyond acquiring processors: it includes coordinating infrastructure, managing delivery and supporting reliable operations. Hawkins’s letter makes the case that Britain’s AI ambitions depend on that practical work as much as on the technology itself.