Oracle expands UK Sovereign Cloud with new GenAI services in $5bn push for government, defence and NATO

Oracle expands AI services in UK Sovereign Cloud for government and defence

Oracle is extending AI infrastructure and Generative AI services for UK government and defence organisations through the Oracle UK Sovereign Cloud, as part of its US$5 billion, five-year investment in the UK. The goal: scale AI across mission areas while keeping national security front and center.

The announcement coincides with US President Donald Trump's state visit, highlighting cooperation between the UK and US across technology and defence. "Under President Donald J. Trump's leadership, allied nations are increasing defence investments to strengthen peace and security," said Safra Catz, Oracle CEO. "Oracle is proud to deliver advanced cloud and AI infrastructure to support the critical missions of government and defence organisations in the UK and NATO member states throughout Europe."

What's new

• Additional Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) capacity in the UK Sovereign Cloud.
• OCI Generative AI service, with models accessible via API for agency applications.
• OCI AI Agent Platform to build, deploy and manage AI agents as a fully managed, cloud-native service.

Why it matters for UK public sector leaders

Oracle UK Sovereign Cloud provides UK data residency and is operated by UK-based teams with SC and NATO security clearances. For high-sensitivity workloads, Oracle notes its Generative AI runs on dedicated AI clusters accessible only within the customer tenancy.

"Protecting its citizens is the most important job of any government. This investment by Oracle is helping us make sure we can continue to protect our national security in an increasingly uncertain world," said UK Technology Minister Kanishka Narayan. "By using AI, we can ensure our two nations and international allies are working in lockstep to do just that - with truly cutting-edge defences."

Expected benefits

• Stronger UK-US-NATO defence cooperation on a common, secure technology platform.
• Faster delivery of AI-enabled capabilities across use cases such as writing assistance, summarisation, analysis and chat.
• Clear path to adopt Gen AI with data residency, cleared operations staff and dedicated AI clusters.

How to act now

• Map mission use cases to the provided services: start with summarisation, report drafting, intel triage and secure chat.
• Run a pilot in the UK Sovereign Cloud using the OCI Generative AI API; measure latency, accuracy and cost per task.
• Establish data governance guardrails: redaction, logging, retrieval policies and model access controls per classification.
• Integrate AI agents via the OCI AI Agent Platform for workflow automation where auditability is required.

Procurement and assurance checklist

• Data residency: confirm storage, processing and backup locations within the UK Sovereign Cloud.
• Isolation: verify dedicated AI cluster boundaries and tenancy-level access controls.
• Clearance: validate UK SC and NATO clearance levels for support personnel and incident response teams (GOV.UK guidance).
• Model governance: request model cards, evaluation metrics and red-teaming results relevant to your use cases.
• Logging and audit: ensure immutable logs, admin action trails and export options for compliance reviews.
• Interoperability: check API compatibility with existing case management, data lakes and messaging systems.
• Resilience: review SLAs, regional failover, and incident communications protocol.

Partnership and mission context

Oracle positions the UK Sovereign Cloud as a shared platform to deepen cooperation between the UK, US and NATO. For agencies coordinating with allies, standardising on a secure cloud and AI stack can simplify joint exercises, intel sharing and operational planning (NATO).

"The UK Government has shown leadership with its ambitious AI goals," said Siobhan Wilson, SVP and country leader at Oracle UK. "Oracle's US $5 billion investment in the UK further cemented our commitment to supporting this agenda."

Key technical notes for implementation

• Access models through the OCI Generative AI service API; integrate behind your existing identity and access policies.
• Use dedicated AI clusters to keep prompts, outputs and telemetry restricted to your tenancy.
• Adopt the OCI AI Agent Platform where you need policy-controlled tools, retrieval and action execution with audit trails.
• Prioritise low-risk, high-volume tasks first (document drafts, briefings, transcript summaries) to build evidence for scaled adoption.

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