Tech Secretary Welcomes Foreign Investment In UK Data Centres Which Will Spur Economic Growth And AI Innovation In Britain

15th October 2024

Four major tech firms based in the US have committed to the UK as the place to invest in data centres, fuelling Britain's economic growth and spurring on AI development.

The Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has today (Monday 14 October) welcomed the ‘vote of confidence' in Britain made by US firms CyrusOne, ServiceNow, Cloud HQ and CoreWeave, who have announced the UK will be the home for their data infrastructure worth a total of £6.3 billion.

The investments, announced as part of today's International Investment Summit, will take the total investment in UK data centres to over £25 billion since this government took office, demonstrating the government’s continuous effort in driving growth by partnering with business.

These new data centres will provide the UK with more computing power and data storage, so that Britain has the necessary infrastructure to 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.

It comes as 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.

Hossein Fateh, CloudHQ’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said:

We are very excited to deliver a hyper-scale campus in the UK that is truly an extension of Slough due to our private diverse fibre optic route.

Our site enables us to build out our campus environment to provide scale and density to meet our customers’ requirements.

Global AI platform and software leader ServiceNow also confirmed its commitment to the UK market, with 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 into employee base beyond its current headcount of 1,000 employees.

ServiceNow Chairman and CEO Bill McDermott said:

Working together, ServiceNow and HM government are on the brink of a great unlock, putting AI to work for people across the country.

AI-powered transformation is a generational opportunity to champion citizens, empower employees, and delight customers. ServiceNow’s investment will accelerate the UK’s innovation blueprint, redefining how people live and work.

CyrusOne, a leading global 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.

Subject to planning permission, the projects should be operational by Q4 2028 and are expected to create over 1,000 jobs both directly and within its immediate design and construction value chain.

Eric Schwartz, President and Chief Executive Officer at CyrusOne, said:

The UK government’s recent ‘critical national infrastructure’ (CNI) designation was a strong signal that data centres are of strategic importance to the UK economy.

It has provided CyrusOne with the confidence to continue its expansion in the UK and support the government’s policy ambition to become a centre of excellence for digital services, technology 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 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.

Mike Intrator, CEO and co-founder of CoreWeave:

CoreWeave’s multiple investments in 2024 are a mark of 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, which is reflected in our decision earlier this year to open our European headquarters in London, and priority focus on investing in critical infrastructure, to drive the continued development of the UK’s thriving AI sector.

Today’s investments follow major deals with investment giant Blackstone, who committed to £10 billion investment in the North East of England last month, and Amazon Web Services, who announced they plan to invest £8 billion in building, maintaining and operating data centres in the UK over the next 5 years.

Only last month, the Tech Secretary also classed UK data centres as ‘Critical National Infrastructure’ (CNI), giving the sector can greater government support in recovering from and anticipating critical incidents, ensuring the industry remains secure and stable.

In July, he also appointed entrepreneur Matt Clifford to kickstart an AI Opportunities Action Plan, which will set out how to boost take up of AI across all parts of the economy, and consider the necessary AI infrastructure, talent, and data access required 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 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 Eli Lilly, 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.

CloudHQ has already secured planning permission to build a state-of-the-art data centre campus in Didcot.