Google will invest $1 billion on building a data centre just outside of London, the US technology giant said on Thursday, in its latest investment in Britain as it meets growing demand for internet services in the region.
Google is set to establish a data center in Waltham Cross, situated on a 33-acre site acquired by the company in 2020. The town is approximately 15 miles north of central London, as mentioned in a statement from Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
The UK government, actively encouraging business investments for supporting new infrastructure, especially in expanding sectors like technology and artificial intelligence, sees Google’s investment as a significant show of trust in the country.
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In the Google statement Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that “Google’s $1 billion investment is testament to the fact that the UK is a centre of excellence in technology and has huge potential for growth.”
After Google’s acquisition of a central London office building near Covent Garden and another site in King’s Cross for office construction and DeepMind operations, the company is now investing in a data center in Waltham Cross.
This move follows Microsoft’s recent announcement of a £2.5 billion investment in the UK over three years, focusing on expanding data center capacity to support future AI services.
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Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said that “This new data centre will help meet growing demand for our AI and cloud services and bring crucial compute capacity to businesses across the UK while creating construction and technical jobs.”
Google, with a workforce of more than 7,000 in Britain, mentioned that the waste heat produced by the data center could be utilized as an energy conservation opportunity that would be advantageous for the local community.
