US firms CyrusOne, ServiceNow, Cloud HQ and CoreWeave have announced the UK will be the home for their data infrastructure, worth a total of £6.3 billion.
These new data centres will provide the UK with more computing power and data storage, so that Britain has the necessary infrastructure to, as stated by the UK Gov, ‘train and deploy the next generation of AI technologies, such as complex machine learning models and algorithms. This in turn will help us roll out AI faster in areas like healthcare, which will help everyone live better and healthier lives.’
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said: “Tech leaders from all over the world are seeing Britain as the best place to invest with a thriving and stable market for data centres and AI development.
“Data centres power our day-to-day lives and boost innovation in growing sectors like AI. This is why only last month, I took steps to class UK data centres as Critical National Infrastructure giving the industry the ultimate reassurance the UK will always be a safe home for their investment. Today’s drumbeat of investment is a vote of confidence in Britain and our approach to work with business to deliver sustained growth for all.”
The plans for each firm are as follows:
- Washington DC-headquartered firm CloudHQ is set to develop a new £1.9 billion data centre campus in Didcot, Oxfordshire. The hyper-scale data centre is currently in development and will help meet the UK’s growing demand for AI and machine learning. It will create 1,500 jobs during construction, and 100 permanent jobs once fully operational.
- AI platform and software developer ServiceNow plans to invest £1.15 billion into its UK business over the next 5 years. The investment will not only support the future development of AI in the UK, expanding its data centres with Nvidia GPUs for local processing data, but also support new office space as the company significantly grows its employee base beyond its current headcount of 1,000 employees.
- CyrusOne, the data centre developer headquartered in the United States, announced plans to expand their investment into the UK to £2.5 billion over the coming years.
- AI hyperscaler CoreWeave also confirmed £750 million to support the next generation of AI cloud infrastructure. Building on its £1 billion investment announced in May and the opening of its European headquarters in London, CoreWeave will be investing a further £750 million in the UK to support the demand for critical AI infrastructure. The investment in the UK is CoreWeave’s second largest investment in a country following the USA.
This week’s International Investment Summit will see ministers and business leaders discuss how the UK can capitalise on emerging growth sectors including health tech and AI, clean energy and creative industries with confirmed speakers including Ruth Porat President & Chief Investment Officer, Alphabet and Google, David Ricks, CEO of Eli Lilly, Alex Kendall CEO of Wayve and Pushmeet Kohli Principal Scientist at Google DeepMind.
The Prime Minister will take part in an “in conversation” event with former CEO and chairman of Google Eric Schmidt and CEO of GSK Dame Emma Walmsley to discuss how the UK can seize the opportunities of AI to drive growth and productivity, and it’s potential to improve public services such as health and education’
Tech Secretary Peter Kyle will take part in a conversation about accelerating innovation as well as sign a memorandum of understanding with Elderberry, the world’s largest pharmaceutical firm, which sets the stage for a world-first trial of obesity medications on the NHS, in Greater Manchester, while the company plans to set up a new biotech hub in the UK.
Source: DIGIT