The UK government has announced securing a total of £6.3 billion ($8.23 billion) in data center investments from four major US tech companies. This move highlights the increasing interest of American firms in expanding overseas to capitalize on surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI).
According to the UK's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the investment commitments come from data center operator CyrusOne, supported by KKR, cloud software firm ServiceNow, Washington-based data center company CloudHQ, and cloud computing provider CoreWeave.
CyrusOne plans to invest £2.5 billion in projects across the UK, expected to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2028, pending planning permission. Meanwhile, ServiceNow has pledged £1.15 billion over the next five years to expand its data centers and office spaces in London and Newport.
CloudHQ has received planning permission to develop a new £1.9 billion data center campus in Didcot, Oxfordshire. CoreWeave is set to invest £750 million in AI cloud infrastructure.
These commitments emphasize the strategic moves by US companies to enhance their global service offerings and gain competitive edges amid the AI boom. The launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022 has significantly driven corporate spending in response to the growing need for robust data centers and cloud services.
