Two major US companies have unveiled plans to invest billions of pounds into UK data centre infrastructure during a state visit by US president Donald Trump.
Microsoft has committed $30bn (£23.5bn) to expanding its UK cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure from 2025 to 2028. The company said in a statement that the investment marked its largest ever in the UK, with $15bn to be spent on capital works including the construction of new data centres and what it described as the country’s largest supercomputer.
The supercomputer will be developed in partnership with Nscale and is expected to house more than 23,000 NVIDIA graphics processing units, according to Microsoft. Details on location, construction timelines or procurement routes have not yet been disclosed.
The remaining $15bn will support operational growth, including software development, datacentre operations, and research and sales across multiple UK locations. Microsoft currently employs 6,000 people in the UK.
In a statement, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said the investment was “a powerful vote of confidence” in Britain’s AI capabilities. He added that government reforms to planning policy, electricity capacity and regulation had helped secure the deal.
Separately, BlackRock has confirmed plans to invest as much as £500m in UK data centre infrastructure, Bloomberg reported. The asset manager has acquired a site in west London, which will be used to launch a joint venture with operator Gravity Edge.
The new company, Digital Gravity Partners, will focus on acquiring existing data centres with spare power capacity, rather than developing sites from scratch. Thomas Mueller-Borja, global co-head of real estate at BlackRock, told Bloomberg: “We are trying to find existing assets that are underutilised but have power”.
The initial £100m investment is being made through BlackRock’s €1.2bn Europe Property Fund VI, which closed in July. The fund’s strategy is to target mid-size data centres serving enterprise customers, rather than large hyperscale developments, to increase the number of potential buyers for the upgraded assets.
Paul Tebbit, BlackRock’s other co-head of real estate, said: “We can see real estate funds or infrastructure funds being the end buyer” of such facilities.
Both investment announcements came as Trump visited the UK for a state event hosted by King Charles. Bloomberg reported that the visit included several Wall Street and Silicon Valley executives, including BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink.
Microsoft said its decision to expand in the UK was based in part on economic stability and regulatory clarity under the new Labour government. It added that the country’s grid and planning reforms were key to unlocking the data centre expansion required to support future AI adoption.
The company said the investment would support major UK clients including Barclays, the NHS, Vodafone, the London Stock Exchange Group and the Met Office, all of whom are expanding their use of Microsoft’s AI tools.
Source: Microsoft statement / Bloomberg article