Blackstone To Invest $13 Billion In AI Data Center In U.K.
by Robert Olsen · ForbesBlackstone has committed to investing £10 billion ($13.4 billion) in the U.K. to build one of Europe’s largest artificial intelligence data centers, Britain’s government has announced.
The investment promises to create 4,000 jobs at a site in Blyth, Northumberland. The land had been bought by Blackstone after the collapse of Britishvolt, which had intended to use the site for manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles. Construction on the data center is expected to begin next year.
Blackstone President and COO, Jonathan Gray, said, “The U.K. is a top investment market for Blackstone because of its powerful combination of talent and innovation along with a highly transparent legal system.”
“We are making significant commitments to building social housing, facilitating the energy transition, growing life sciences companies and developing critical infrastructure needed to fuel the digital economy,” he added.
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager with investments spanning private equity, real estate, credit and hedge funds. The group had $1.1 trillion in assets under management as of June this year. Its portfolio of commercial real estate was valued last year at $337 billion.
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Britain's prime minister, Keir Starmer, welcomed the investment while on a visit to New York aimed at attracting investment to boost the U.K.’s ailing economy.
“New investment such as the one we’ve announced with Blackstone today is a huge vote of confidence in the UK and it proves that Britain is back as a major player on the global stage and we’re open for business,” Starmer said.
The plan for the data center was first revealed in April in when the local council published Blackstone’s proposal for the site. The firm’s data center business, QTS, acquired the land for about £20 million, followed by phased payments of up to £110 million to the council in exchange for long-term control of the site.
The rise of artificial intelligence is boosting demand for power-hungry data centers. Investment bank Goldman Sachs recently estimated that power demand from data centers will grow 160% by 2030. Data centers currently consume 1% to 2% of global energy use, but that figure could rise to 4% by the end of the decade.