US Tech Giants Pledge £6.3 Billion to Boost UK Data Center Expansion Amid AI Surge
The UK government has announced that it has secured a total of £6.3 billion ($8.23 billion) in data center investments from four major US technology firms. This development marks a significant expansion of American enterprises into foreign markets amid rising demands in the artificial intelligence sector.
The UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology highlighted that the investment pledges come from four key players: the KKR-backed data center operator CyrusOne, cloud software company ServiceNow, Washington-based data center firm CloudHQ, and cloud computing provider CoreWeave.
CyrusOne plans to invest £2.5 billion in UK projects, aiming for operational status by the fourth quarter of 2028, contingent upon planning approval. Meanwhile, ServiceNow has committed £1.15 billion over the next five years for expanding their data centers and office spaces in London and Newport.
Furthermore, CloudHQ has obtained planning permission to develop a new £1.9 billion data center campus in Didcot, Oxfordshire. CoreWeave is set to invest £750 million into AI cloud infrastructure, underscoring the growing emphasis on supporting AI-driven technologies.
These commitments underscore the increasing interest of American companies in extending their operations internationally to gain a competitive edge in the fast-paced AI race. The launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT at the end of 2022 spurred a wave of corporate spending geared toward meeting the mounting demand for robust data centers and cloud services.