UK’s Capita fined £14 million over 2023 cyber breach affecting 6.7 million people

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Capita has been fined £14 million ($18.7 million) by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for failing to protect personal data during a 2023 cyberattack that compromised information belonging to 6.7 million individuals, the outsourcing firm said on Wednesday.

The company, which provides services to UK government departments and major corporations, said the fine was part of a settlement with the ICO. Capita had previously estimated that the breach could cost up to £20 million in financial damages.

The ICO report found that Capita failed to maintain adequate network protections, allowing unauthorized access and privilege escalation, and did not respond properly to early security alerts. The regulator said the case underscored the growing pressure on British companies to strengthen cyber defenses following major breaches at Marks & Spencer, Co-op, and Jaguar Land Rover.

“With so many cyber attacks in the headlines, our message is clear: every organization, no matter how large, must take proactive steps to keep people’s data secure,” said John Edwards, the UK’s Information Commissioner.

Capita said it has since introduced advanced cybersecurity measures and completed an internal overhaul of its digital infrastructure. “Following an extended period of dialogue with the ICO, we are pleased to have concluded this matter,” said CEO Adolfo Hernandez.

The firm expects a free cash outflow of £59 million–£79 million in 2025, up from previous guidance of £45 million–£65 million, but noted that all other financial targets remain unchanged.

According to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the number of “highly significant” cyber incidents in Britain has doubled year-on-year, reflecting growing systemic risks across the public and private sectors.

UK’s Nscale to supply Microsoft with 200,000 Nvidia AI chips in major data center deal

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Nscale, a British artificial intelligence infrastructure company backed by Nvidia, announced on Wednesday that it will supply around 200,000 Nvidia AI chips to Microsoft under an expanded partnership aimed at scaling data center capacity across Europe and the United States.

While the financial details were not disclosed, the Financial Times reported that the deal could be worth up to $14 billion, based on similar contracts. The agreement will be executed in collaboration with Dell Technologies, which will help deploy the AI hardware across Microsoft’s hyperscale facilities.

The rollout will begin next year, with Nscale supplying Nvidia GPUs from its data centers in Texas and Portugal, the company said. The project also includes a joint venture with Norway’s Aker, which will provide 52,000 additional GPUs from Nscale’s hyperscale AI campus in Narvik, Norway.

The partnership reflects the surging demand for AI computing power, as tech giants including Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet race to build infrastructure capable of training and deploying massive AI models. According to Citigroup, global AI-related infrastructure spending is expected to surpass $2.8 trillion by 2029.

Nscale, which raised $1.1 billion in September from investors including Aker and Finland’s Nokia, said the funds will accelerate its data center expansion and position the company as a key player in the global AI supply chain.

Bharti Airtel partners with IBM to boost cloud services amid India’s AI boom

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Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, has announced a new partnership with IBM to expand its cloud service offerings through the recently launched Airtel Cloud platform, the companies said on Wednesday.

The collaboration will allow Airtel Cloud customers to deploy IBM’s AI-ready servers and enterprise cloud tools, targeting regulated sectors such as banking, healthcare, and government. The move comes amid surging demand for computing capacity in India, driven by the country’s rapid adoption of artificial intelligence technologies and localized data storage requirements.

The announcement follows Google’s $15 billion investment to build an AI data center in Andhra Pradesh, a project in which Airtel is also a partner. The facility, to be established in Visakhapatnam, underscores India’s growing importance as a digital infrastructure hub.

Airtel’s digital arm, Xtelify, launched Airtel Cloud in August, positioning it as a key player in India’s expanding cloud ecosystem. As part of the new partnership, Airtel and IBM will establish two Multizone Regions (MZRs) in Mumbai and Chennai, which will distribute cloud infrastructure across multiple zones to ensure data security and uninterrupted operations in case of system failures.

“These Multizone Regions will help Indian businesses meet data residency rules while ensuring their critical workloads remain secure and continuously available,” said Gopal Vittal, vice chairman and managing director of Bharti Airtel.

The partnership is part of Airtel’s broader strategy to integrate global cloud expertise with its extensive network infrastructure to serve India’s fast-growing digital economy.