The future of the Edinburgh exascale supercomputer is currently unclear.

There are only a small number of such immensely powerful machines in the world, with an earlier version housed in Bristol.

The new funding was announced in October last year and Edinburgh University had already spent £31m building housing for it.

It was considered to be a priority project by the previous government.

The machine would have been 50 times faster than any current computers in the UK, the university said at the time.

“Exascale will help researchers model all aspects of the world, test scientific theories and improve products and services in areas such as artificial intelligence, drug discovery, climate change, astrophysics and advanced engineering,” it says on its website.

A spokesperson for the university told the BBC that it “has led the way in supercomputing within the UK for decades”.

“[It] is ready to work with the government to support the next phase of this technology in the UK, in order to unlock its benefits for industry, public services and society,” they added.

Sue Daley, the director of technology and innovation at techUK, said ministers now needed to plot a new way forward.

She told BBC News: “Investment in large scale computers is vital for the scientific breakthroughs that will grow our economy and improve our lives.

“The UK had sent clear signals about its ambitions to host a new generation of computers to enable cutting edge research, including in AI.

“In an extremely competitive global environment, the government needs to come forward with new proposals quickly. Otherwise, we will lose out against our peers.”

Last week, DSIT announced that Matt Clifford, who was one of the organisers of the inaugural AI Safety Summit held at Bletchley Park in November 2023, had been asked to draw up an action plan for identifying new “AI opportunities”- including infrastructure.

The tech sector is considered to be a valuable part of the UK economy, and therefore important for the economic growth Labour has pledged to prioritise.

In a recent report, the tech network Tech Nation gave it a market value of $1.1 trillion (£863bn) in the first quarter of 2024.