Yang Li
Co-founder and COO of Cosine, the UK air-gapped sovereign AI company.
Last refreshed: 19 April 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
What does Yang Li mean when she says the UK should be an AI maker not an AI taker?
Timeline for Yang Li
Framed Cosine's mission as making Britain an AI maker, not an AI taker
European Tech Sovereignty: UK names first Sovereign AI investees- Who is Yang Li at Cosine AI?
- Yang Li is co-founder and COO of Cosine, the British sovereign AI company, and a Cambridge PhD who co-founded the firm in 2022 with Alistair Pullen.Source: Tech.eu 17 April 2026
- What does it mean to be an AI maker not an AI taker?
- Yang Li's phrase captures the UK Sovereign AI strategy: building domestic AI capable of serving classified infrastructure rather than depending on US providers like OpenAI or Google.Source: Tech.eu 17 April 2026
- Who founded Cosine AI?
- Alistair Pullen (CEO) and Yang Li (COO), both Cambridge PhDs, co-founded Cosine in 2022.Source: Tech.eu 17 April 2026
Background
Yang Li co-founded Cosine in 2022 alongside Alistair Pullen, both Cambridge PhDs, and serves as the company's Chief Operating Officer. When Cosine was named the cornerstone investee of the UK Sovereign AI Fund on 16 April 2026, Li framed the mission as making Britain 'an AI maker, not an AI taker' — a phrase that crystallised the fund's ambition against the backdrop of OpenAI's simultaneous London office expansion .
Li's COO role at Cosine covers operations and strategy for an air-gapped sovereign AI coding system serving nuclear, defence, and financial-services clients. Cosine operates entirely within Britain with no internet connections or foreign model dependencies, requiring an operations framework that differs fundamentally from Cloud-hosted AI companies.
Li's public framing places Cosine as a direct counterpoint to the US AI industry presence in London. Her 'maker not taker' formulation has been widely quoted and signals Cosine's strategic positioning: a British company building sovereign AI for classified infrastructure at the moment the UK Government is simultaneously welcoming OpenAI to a permanent London base .
