The UK government plans to launch a £500 million ($672m) venture fund focused on fostering AI development.

The ‘Sovereign AI’ fund plans to launch on April 16, and is set to be chaired by investor James Wise. The fund was initially proposed in the UK’s 2025 AI Opportunities Action Plan.

Wise will remain a partner at VC fund Balderton, where he has invested in a number of European AI startups. On his Balderton profile, Wise said his government role will “support on strategy for critical infrastructure for AI.”

It is not clear if the fund will focus purely on AI applications, or also fund semiconductor or data center projects.

Last year, the UK government announced plans to invest £1 billion ($1.34bn), scaling the nation’s sovereign compute power “by a factor of 20.” The country is building out an AI Research Resource (AIRR), where national supercomputers are made available to public researchers, academia, and small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Whether access to AIRR will be part of the Sovereign AI fund has not been disclosed.

Outside of Wise, the fund includes a number of employees from the AI Security Institute, a research organization within the Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT). Among them are Konstantin Sietz, Peter Anstey, and Eliza Cudmore. Also from DSIT is Rob Reynolds, who concurrently serves as Private Secretary of AI Infrastructure and Investment.