Spending on new UK data centres is set to surge to £10 billion a year by 2029, more than five times higher than in 2024, according to new analysis from construction data firm Barbour ABI.
The report found that £1.75 billion was spent on data centre construction in 2023, with that figure projected to rise to £2.38 billion in 2025 as demand for AI-driven computing power continues to accelerate. Over the next five years, tech giants including Microsoft, Nvidia, and Google are expected to invest a combined £25 billion in the UK’s data infrastructure, with nearly 100 new projects already in the pipeline.
Barbour ABI said the expansion reflects both global AI adoption and UK government initiatives, such as the AI Growth Zones, designed to speed up planning approvals for digital infrastructure.
While London and its surrounding regions remain the country’s data centre hub, development is now spreading nationwide, driven by rising demand for low-latency connectivity and renewable energy sources to power data-intensive AI systems.
The largest upcoming project is a $13 billion hyperscale data centre planned in North East England, led by U.S. private equity group Blackstone—a sign that international investors view the UK as a strategic AI infrastructure hub.
The rise in data centre construction comes amid a global race to expand digital capacity following the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, which sparked an explosion in AI model training, cloud computing, and enterprise automation.
Barbour ABI said the shift marks one of the fastest-growing infrastructure trends in the country’s history. “AI has completely reshaped data demands,” the report noted. “We’re now entering a decade defined by hyperscale expansion.”