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Published on
September 16, 2025
5 min read
Google Announces $6.8 Billion UK AI investment, Opens Data Center in London
Google is set to make a $6.8 billion (£5 billion) investment in the U.K. According to Reuters, Google’s U.K. AI investment announcement came as the tech giant opened the Waltham Cross data center in Hertfordshire, near London.
Rising Demand for AI-Powered Services
Google opened the data center in Waltham Cross to meet the rising demand for its AI-powered services such as Google Cloud, Maps, Search, and Workspace. Over the next two years, Google’s investment in the U.K. will cater to a range of functions. These include research and development, capital expenditure, and engineering, as well as supporting the DeepMind AI research laboratory.
“We founded DeepMind in London because we knew the U.K. had the potential and talent to be a global hub for pioneering AI. The U.K. has a rich history of being at the forefront of technology, from Lovelace to Babbage to Turing, so it’s fitting that we are continuing that legacy by investing in the next wave of innovation and scientific discovery in the U.K,” Google DeepMind CEO and Co-founder Demis Hassabis said.
Google rolled out Gemini 2.5 Deep Think AI in August 2025. The advanced reasoning model marked a significant milestone in the company’s AI journey due to its ability to explore multiple solutions simultaneously and use outputs to select the best response.
Google’s investment will contribute to Britain’s AI infrastructure and research capabilities. In June 2025, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang criticized U.K.’s AI readiness, saying that the country did not have the computing infrastructure needed to deliver its AI research base.
Google’s Waltham Cross data center is part of the search giant’s £5 billion investment in the U.K.
Spurring Economic Growth
The latest investment by Google will create 8,250 AI jobs in the U.K. The investment will also be viewed as a major boost for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration, which has been seeking to attract private investment to spur economic growth. Overally, the British government considers Google’s investment as critical for the country’s economy.
“Google’s £5 billion 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. 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,” U.K. Finance Minister Chancellor Rachel Reeves said.
Google’s announcement comes a day before the U.S. President Donald Trump makes a state visit to the U.K. on September 17, 2025. President Trump’s visit is expected to deepen economic ties between the two Western countries. Senior U.S. government officials have also said that the state visit will be characterized by business meetings and partnerships, with economic deals worth more than $10 billion expected.
Embracing Clean Energy
As Google opened the London AI infrastructure, the tech giant announced that it had signed a deal with Shell Energy Europe to serve as its Carbon-Free Energy Manager in the U.K.
The partnership allows Shell Energy to manage Google’s power portfolio, which is designed to address intermittency of clean energy generation using battery energy storage systems (BESS).
Shell Energy will also optimize Google’s energy portfolio, allowing it to store surplus energy during high production and releasing stored power to the grid during low production.
As part of reducing environmental impact from Google’s new U.K. data center, the tech giant will use air-cooling technology. The company also said it had equipped the data center to re-route heat from the facility and provide it to local businesses and homes. With its clean energy efforts and a Shell partnership, Google expects its U.K. operations to run on 95% carbon-free energy by 2026.
As demand for data centers rises, environmental sustainability has become a major issue. Lobby groups have raised concerns over the high amounts needed to operate data centers continuously. Last month, the U.K. government faced legal backlash after it approved data center development on Greenbelt land. Environmental advocates in the country filed a planning statutory appeal in court to reverse the approval.
