Google announced it has begun work on building a new data centre in the UK, which represents an investment of $1 billion in the country.
Located in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, the data centre will be spread out across 33 acres of land purchased by Google in October 2020.
Once complete, Google said the data centre will power digital services for Google Cloud customers and Google users in the UK. It will also play a “critical role” in supporting Google’s AI ambitions and “growing” cloud needs in the country, the tech giant added.
The latest investment builds on Google’s ongoing commitments in the country, including its office developments in Saint Giles and Kings Cross, multi-year research collaboration with the University of Cambridge, and the Grace Hopper subsea cable that connects the UK with the US and Spain.
“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 for the local community,” said Ruth Porat, president, chief investment officer and chief financial officer of Alphabet and Google.
“Together with the UK government, we are working to make AI more helpful and accessible for people and organisations across the country.”
The new data centre will also help Google Cloud customers reduce their carbon footprint, backed by the tech giant’s efforts to make all its data centres and campuses run on carbon-free energy by 2030, the company noted.
Taking to X, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak wrote about the deal: “It’s a huge vote of confidence in the UK as the largest tech economy in Europe, bringing with it good jobs and the infrastructure needed to support British businesses.”
“Foreign investment creates jobs and grows all regions of our economy and investments like this will help to drive growth in the decade ahead. I will continue to back businesses to invest and innovate here in the UK,” he added.