To tie in with the government’s International Investment Summit, US tech firms CyrusOne, ServiceNow, Cloud HQ, CoreWeave and ServiceNow have announced big British expansion worth a total of £6.3bn.  ,
The government approved a bill to designate UK datacentres as essential national infrastructure ( CNI ) last month, and in July, it hired entrepreneur Matt Clifford to launch an AI Opportunities Action Plan, which will outline how to promote the use of artificial intelligence ( AI ) across all sectors of the economy. Clifford’s role includes an assessment of the essential AI infrastructure, talent and data access required to drive adoption by the public and private sectors.
Since Labour took office, the government’s latest investments have brought the entire investment in UK datacenters to over £25 billion, which shows how consistently the government works to promote growth by working with businesses.
Technology secretary Peter Kyle said in a statement about the new investments:” These fresh datacentres 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 complicated 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”.
CyrusOne, a worldwide datacentre provider, announced plans to increase its UK investment to £2.5 billion over the upcoming years. By the end of 2028, the projects are anticipated to create more than 1, 000 jobs both straight and within its quick design and construction value chain, with planning permission.
Eric Schwartz, president and CEO at CyrusOne, said:” The UK government’s new important national infrastructure designation was a strong signal that datacentres are of proper importance to the UK economy. It has given CyrusOne the confidence to expand further in the UK and help it continue its growth in line with the government’s policy objectives to become a hub for innovation in online services, technology, and AI.
CloudHQ is planning to develop a fresh £1.9bn datacentre campus in Didcot, Oxfordshire, which the government said would help to meet the UK’s growing demand for AI and machine learning. It will create 1, 500 jobs during construction and 100 permanent jobs after fully functional.
Hossein Fateh, CloudHQ’s founder and CEO, said:” Our site enables us to build out our campus environment to provide scale and density to meet our customers ‘ requirements”.
ServiceNow has stated that it will remain devoted to the UK market and that it will invest £1.15 billion in its UK business over the next five years. For local processing data, Nvidia graphics processing units are used in the investment, as are fresh office spaces for the company’s latest 1, 000-person workforce.  ,
Discussing the UK investment, ServiceNow chairman and CEO Bill McDermott said:” Working up, ServiceNow and HM government are on the brink of a wonderful unlock, putting AI to work for people across the country. AI-powered transformation offers a generation an opportunity to champion citizens, empower staff, and delight customers. ServiceNow’s investment will accelerate the UK’s innovation blueprint, redefining how people live and work”.
AI hyperscaler CoreWeave confirmed £750m to support what it refers to as the next generation of AI cloud infrastructure after announcing its subsequent investment in the UK this year.  ,
CoreWeave announced it would be more investing in the UK in response to the demand for significant AI infrastructure, building on a £1 billion investment announced in May and the opening of its European headquarters in London.
Mike Intrator, CEO and co-founder of CoreWeave, said:” We are encouraged by the UK’s powerful talent pool, which is reflected in our decision earlier this year to open our German headquarters in London and priority focus on investing in critical infrastructure, to drive the continued development of the UK’s growing AI sector”.
These investments follow next month’s deal with investment firm Blackstone, which has committed to invest £10bn in the north-east of England, and Amazon Web Services, which has announced plans to invest £8bn in building, maintaining and operating datacentres in the UK over the next five years.
