What's stopping Britain from becoming a tech powerhouse?

It produced Arm and DeepMind but flopped at producing a Covid-19 contact tracing app

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Tech has suddenly become a defining issue for the British government. A US$40 billion (S$54.4 billion) deal for Cambridge-based chip designer Arm comes as technology policy has created an obstruction in Brexit negotiations.

The government that hailed Arm's first sale in 2016 as a sign of Britain's post-Brexit allure has come a long way. Britain's trade talks with the European Union (EU) - and possibly a future trade deal with the United States - are poised on a knife's edge.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 16, 2020, with the headline What's stopping Britain from becoming a tech powerhouse?. Subscribe