Barclays backs UK AI Innovation with investment in CommonAI

• Barclays invests in CommonAI fuelling further growth of its AI engineering platform
• The investment supports the growth of the UK’s AI capabilities, focused on developing trusted, domestic AI infrastructure
• CommonAI launches programme focused on High Assurance, developing AI systems for highly regulated and essential environments such as financial services

Today, Barclays has announced an investment in CommonAI, supporting the acceleration and development of artificial intelligence capabilities across the UK.

Founded by Anthemis and Cambridge AI Venture Partners, CommonAI brings together startups, enterprises, engineers and academics to develop, test and deploy AI systems at scale through its collaborative engineering and compute platform.

Through its membership model, CommonAI also aims to close the scale and knowledge gap in AI development that can hold back start-ups and small businesses from competing globally. It does this by providing access to models, training data, hardware design and affordable compute power, empowering organisations to build business-specific AI solutions safely, without prohibitive development costs.

To coincide with Barclays’ investment, CommonAI is launching its High Assurance AI programme, focused on developing AI systems capable of operating autonomously to safely make decisions when operating in high-risk environments, such as financial services, where accuracy, explainability and accountability are essential. Coinciding with the High Assurance programme, Anthemis intends to raise a fund seeking to back startups operating in this space.

Barclays will become a member of the High Assurance programme and look to leverage the platform to identify strategic use cases and develop solutions to industry-wide challenges within financial services.

Kristen Bennie, Group Head of Innovation and Partnerships at Barclays, said: “Artificial intelligence is transforming the way businesses operate and innovate. By supporting CommonAI, we are helping to build a more open and collaborative ecosystem that can accelerate the development and adoption of AI across the UK, allowing businesses of all sizes, including Barclays, to access the capabilities and expertise to innovate and compete globally.”

Kanishka Narayan, AI Minister, said: "For AI to drive growth, businesses need to trust the systems they are using, especially in high-stakes sectors like financial services.

“CommonAI is building trusted, home-grown AI infrastructure that gives UK startups and businesses of every size the tools to develop and deploy AI with confidence, helping unlock AI-powered growth that we all stand to benefit from.”

Amy Nauiokas, Founder and Group CEO, Anthemis, and Director, CommonAI, said: “Barclays’ backing underscores the importance of building trusted UK AI infrastructure. As AI moves from experimentation into real-world deployment, the next phase of development will depend on building systems that can operate safely, reliably and at scale across critical industries. CommonAI’s focus on high assurance development will support exactly that - whilst helping create the conditions for the next generation of scalable, commercially viable AI companies to emerge, further supported by Anthemis’ dedicated fund.”

Gavin Ferris, CEO, CommonAI CIC, said: “The UK has a major opportunity in AI, but that long-term leadership will depend on building sovereign capability to develop and deploy trusted systems domestically. Barclays’ support reflects growing recognition that trusted UK AI capabilities will be critical to enabling adoption across regulated and mission-critical sectors. This comes following the launch of our Scaling Inference programme with ARIA to improve how AI systems run at scale in real-world data-centre environments.”

Barclays’ investment reflects its commitment to supporting innovation and advancing AI capabilities in the UK. Alongside this, Barclays continues to support the wider UK innovation ecosystem through initiatives such as Barclays Eagle Labs, a national network of 43 sites offering mentoring, learning, growth programmes and access to investors and corporate partners.

ENDS

About Barclays

Our vision is to be the UK-centred leader in global finance. We are a diversified bank with comprehensive UK consumer, corporate and wealth and private banking franchises, a leading investment bank and a strong, specialist US consumer bank. Through these five divisions, we are working together for a better financial future for our customers, clients and communities.

For further information about Barclays, please visit our website home.barclays.

About CommonAI

www.commonai.com

CommonAI is a collaborative engineering and computing platform launched by Anthemis and Cambridge AI Venture Partners to support the growth of AI-enabled businesses across the UK and Europe. Comprised of a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) and a compute services provider, CommonAI is building a coalition of world-class engineers, AI specialists, entrepreneurs, academics, and investors. It aims to empower early-stage startups and enterprises with access to cutting-edge technology, compute power, and shared IP through a foundational Digital Commons resource. By reducing reliance on Big Tech while catalysing secure innovation, CommonAI helps organisations develop and scale AI solutions safely, affordably, and effectively.