OpenAI, a deal between the Ministry of Justice and OpenAI, opens the door to sovereign AI

OpenAI and the Ministry of Justice have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to give civil servants access to ChatGPT. The MoU allows customers to choose UK data residency when using the OpenAI API Platform and ChatGPT Enterprise or ChatGPT Edu.

OpenAI is being used by the UK government in a number of tools to provide artificial intelligence. This includes the Whitehall AI Assistant, Humphrey. It was designed to reduce the administrative burden for civil servants. OpenAI is behind the government’s tool Consult, which supports policymaking by automatically sorting responses to public consultations. This task, which typically takes officials several weeks, can now be completed within minutes while leaving important decisions up to experts.

This agreement supports the MoJ AI action plan for Justice and will give 2,500 employees access to ChatGPT. The pilot was a success, demonstrating time-savings across a variety of routine tasks, including writing support, legal and compliance work, data and search processes, and document analyses.

In light of the current geopolitical environment, IT leaders from both the public and the private sector are rethinking their approach to maintaining digital sovereignty. Hyperscale cloud providers have adopted geographically isolated availability zone.

But, because these businesses are primarily US-based, there is the risk that lawmakers could use the US Cloud Act to gain access to data outside the US. The risk is greater if a foreign country prevents access to services provided by US-based software providers. In Europe, plans are being made to develop a sovereign AI and cloud infrastructure.

David Lammy, the deputy prime minister of the UK, commented on the MoU: “Our partnership places Britain firmly at the forefront of the global tech-revolution – leading in innovation and using technology for fairness and opportunity in every corner of the United Kingdom.” OpenAI said that the MoU agreement between the UK government and OpenAI includes a focus to expand the UK’s sovereignty AI capability.

OpenAI, following the Stargate UK AI Infrastructure partnership with Nvidia, and Nscale that was signed in September of 2025 in conjunction with US President Donald Trump’s State Visit, is now introducing UK Data Residency, which would allow British customers and developers to store their data within the UK in order to meet local data protection requirements or preferences. As part of the MoU, the Ministry of Justice is the first to benefit.

UK startup Nscale, based in the UK, is one of many companies with strong ties to the UK government’s AI expansion plans. Last month, Microsoft announced that it would be partnering with Nscale to deliver the UK’s largest AI supercomputer on its AI Campus in Loughton. The site, which is due to go live in the year 2027, will initially house 23,040 Nvidia GPUs (graphics processing units) for Microsoft UK Azure public cloud services.

Open AI Stargate’s UK initiative will also use Nscale infrastructure. This is set to go live during Q1 2026. This could eventually scale up to 31,000 Nvidia graphics cards.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the number of people in the UK using our products has increased fourfold over the last year. “It is exciting to see how they are using AI to save money, increase productivity, and get more done. ChatGPT is being used by civil servants to improve public services, and established companies are reimagining their operations. We’re proud of our continued support for the UK and its AI plan.”