Technology Secretary Peter Kyle today (Monday October 14) welcomed the ‘vote of confidence’ in Britain by US companies CyrusOne, ServiceNow, Cloud HQ and CoreWeave, which announced that the UK Uni would house their data infrastructure worth a total of £6.3 billion.
The investments, announced today as part of the International Investment Summit, will take total investment in UK data centers to more than £25 billion since this Government took office, demonstrating efforts government’s ongoing efforts to stimulate growth by partnering with businesses.
These new data centers will provide the UK with more computing power and data storage, ensuring the UK has the infrastructure needed to train and deploy the next generation of data centres. AI technologies, such as complex machine learning models and algorithms. This will help us deploy AI faster in areas such as healthcare, which will help everyone live better, healthier lives.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said:
Technology leaders around the world view Britain as the best place to invest, with a thriving and stable market for data centers and AI development.
Data centers power our daily lives and drive innovation in growing industries like AI. That’s why last month I took action to classify UK data centers as critical national infrastructure, giving the industry ultimate reassurance that the UK will always be a safe home for investment . Today’s pace of investment is a vote of confidence in Britain and our approach to working with business to deliver sustainable growth for all.
It comes as Washington DC-based CloudHQ is set to develop a new £1.9 billion data center campus in Didcot, Oxfordshire.
The large-scale data center is currently under 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.
Hossein Fateh, Founder and CEO of CloudHQ, said:
We are very excited to create a large-scale campus in the UK that is truly an extension of Slough through our diverse private fiber optic route.
Our location allows us to expand our campus environment to provide scale and density to meet our customers’ requirements.
Global AI Platform and software leader ServiceNow has also confirmed its commitment to the UK market, with plans to invest £1.15 billion in its UK operations over the next 5 years. The investment will not only support the future development of AI in the United Kingdom, expands its data centers with Nvidia GPU for local data processing, but also to support new office space as the company significantly increases its workforce beyond its current headcount of 1,000 employees.
President of ServiceNow and CEO Bill McDermott said:
Working together, ServiceNow and Her Majesty’s Government are on the verge of achieving a Great Unlock, bringing AI working for people across the country.
AIBusiness-led transformation is a generational opportunity to advocate for citizens, empower employees, and delight customers. ServiceNow’s investment will accelerate the UK’s innovation plan, redefining the way people live and work.
CyrusOne, a leading global data center developer headquartered in the US, has announced plans to expand its investment in the UK to £2.5 billion over the coming years.
Subject to planning permission, the projects are expected to be operational by T4 2028 and is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs directly and within its immediate design and construction value chain.
Eric Schwartz, President and CEO of CyrusOne, said:
The UK government’s recent “critical national infrastructure” (CNI) designation was a strong signal that data centers are of strategic importance to the UK economy.
This gives CyrusOne the confidence to continue its expansion in the UK and support the Government’s policy ambition to become a center of excellence for digital services, technological innovation and AI.
Announcing its second investment in the UK this year, 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 invest a further £750 million in the UK to support demand for critical products. AI infrastructure. The UK investment is CoreWeave’s second largest investment in any country after the US.
Mike Intrator, CEO and co-founder of CoreWeave:
CoreWeave’s multiple investments in 2024 demonstrate our confidence in the government’s commitment to attracting global private investment through the creation of a stable, business-friendly environment.
We are encouraged by the UK’s strong talent pool, reflected in our decision earlier this year to open our European headquarters in London, and by the priority placed on investment in critical infrastructure, to boost the continued development of the UK’s thriving sector. AI sector.
Today’s investments follow major deals with investment giant Blackstone, which committed to investing £10 billion in the North East of England last month, and Amazon Web Services, which has announced plans to invest £8 billion in building, maintaining and operating data centers in the North East of England. UK over the next 5 years.
Only last month, the Technical Secretary also classified UK data centers as “critical national infrastructure” (CNI), providing the sector with greater government support to recover and anticipate critical incidents, thereby ensuring the safety and stability of the industry.
In July he also appointed entrepreneur Matt Clifford to launch a AI Opportunities Action Plan, which will define how to drive adoption of AI in all sectors of the economy, and consider the necessary measures AI the infrastructure, talent and access to data needed to drive adoption by the public and private sectors.
This week’s International Investment Summit will see ministers and business leaders discuss how the UK can take advantage of emerging growth sectors including health technology and AIclean energy and creative industries with senior speakers including Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer, Alphabet and Google, David Ricks, CEO by Eli Lilly, Alex Kendall CEO by Wayve and Pushmeet Kohli, principal scientists at Google DeepMind.
Prime Minister to participate in ‘in conversation’ event with former CEO and president of Google Eric Schmidt and CEO from GSK Dame Emma Walmsley to discuss how the UK can seize opportunities to AI to boost growth and productivity, and it is possible to improve public services such as health and education.
Technical Secretary Peter Kyle will join a conversation on accelerating innovation and sign a memorandum of understanding with Eli Lilly, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, which paves the way for a world-first drug trial against obesity on the NHS in Greater Manchester as the company plans to create a new biotechnology hub in the UK.
Notes to editors
CloudHQ has already secured planning permission to build a state-of-the-art data center campus in Didcot.
