This could be one way to get out of the European regulators’ dog house.
A couple of weeks after having been hit with €2.95 billion (USD $3.5 billion) fine by the European Commission for breaching EU antitrust rules, Alphabet’s Google (GOOG) announced that it is opening a new AI data center in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, just north of London.
The new data center is part of Google’s two-year £5 billion (USD $6.8 billion) investment in the UK. The $6.8 billion investment will include Google capital expenditure, as well as research and development and related engineering.
The initiative will also involve Google DeepMind, which is Alphabet’s AI research division. DeepMind was founded in London in 2010 and acquired by Google in 2014.
“The investments will help the UK develop its AI economy and unlock AI breakthroughs across the UK, fortify cybersecurity, and create future-focused career opportunities for millions of Brits,” Google said about the initiative.
The investment is expected to create about 8,250 jobs annually at UK businesses, according to Google.
The new data center in Waltham Cross was opened on Tuesday by UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
“Google's £5bn investment is a powerful vote of confidence in the UK economy and the strength of our partnership with the US, creating jobs and economic growth for years to come,” she said in a statement.
“This government is reversing decades of underinvestment that has held us back for too long, by slashing burdensome red tape, delivering bold reforms of the planning system and investing in better tech to unlock better jobs and opportunities.”
Google has partnered with Shell Energy Europe Limited to power the data center using carbon-free fuel that the company said will “contribute to grid stability and the UK's energy transition.”
Ruth Porat, president and CIO of Alphabet and Google, said in a statement that Google was “deepening our roots in the UK and helping support Great Britain's potential with AI to add £400 billion to the economy by 2030 while also enhancing critical social services.”
As of August, there were an estimated 477 data centers in the UK, according to a report by the BBC, with about 100 more set to be built – most of them over the next five years.
Microsoft (MSFT) has planned a £2.5 billion (USD $3.2 billion) investment to expand its data center sites in the UK across London, South Wales and Yorkshire – but the company has warned that these investments could be at risk due to delays in connecting to the country’s National Grid.
Microsoft has planned on deploying over 20,000 advanced GPUs in the UK by 2026.
And U.S.-based global asset management giant Blackstone (BX) is making a massive £10 billion (USD $13.7 billion) investment to build a series of data centers in Blyth, a port town in Northumberland, England.
However, construction is not planned to begin until 2031.
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