Budget 2026: Healey unveils data centre deal in bid to keep Britain’s AI data in the UK Budget 2026 John Healey has unveiled a new deal offering data centre developers priority access to Britain’s electricity grid in exchange for investment in jobs and environmental protections. Announcing the British Data Centre Covenant in Wednesday’s Budget, Healey said the government would impose strict conditions on developers while helping critical facilities secure the power needed to support [...]
Data centre builders could face new demands for priority grid access Tech The UK government is considering forcing data centre developers to invest in local communities and meet sustainability targets in exchange for priority access to the grid, as ministers miss their own deadline for introducing new planning rules. Under proposals being examined ahead of Wednesday’s Budget, developers could be required to make financial contributions to local [...]
Tesla-SpaceX merger could fuel AI spending spree across Musk’s $3.5 trillion empire Tech Elon Musk’s proposed $3.5 trillion (£2.6 trillion) merger of Tesla and SpaceX could unlock a wave of AI investment, giving the billionaire greater access to cash and borrowing power as he races to expand his tech empire. Analysts said combining the two businesses could help Musk fund his increasingly expensive AI ambitions, bringing together Tesla’s [...]
Microsoft boss warns of AI trust crisis as UK workers lag behind bosses October 22, 2026 Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella has warned that increasingly powerful AI systems are becoming less trustworthy, as new research exposes a widening confidence gap between UK bosses and their employees. Speaking at Microsoft’s Frontier Tour in London on Wednesday, Nadella urged businesses to embrace AI while retaining human oversight, warning that the technology’s growing capabilities [...]
Fuse takes on UK AI power crisis with bet on ‘faster’ data centres October 21, 2026 British energy unicorn Fuse is moving into AI infrastructure, betting that its control over electricity supply will allow it to build data centres faster than rivals struggling with lengthy grid delays. The London-based company, founded by former Revolut executives Alan Chang and Charles Orr, has launched Fuse Compute, offering businesses access to Nvidia chips hosted [...]
Nscale eyes second $45bn deal with Anthropic after Microsoft setback October 20, 2026 British AI infrastructure firm, Nscale, is in talks to secure a second $45bn (£33.5bn) computing deal with Anthropic, just a day after Microsoft pulled out of its flagship UK data centre project. The Nvidia-backed company is negotiating an agreement to supply the US AI giant with computing power from a second facility at its Monarch [...]
Microsoft pulls out of Nscale deal for UK’s largest AI data centre October 19, 2026 Microsoft has pulled out of plans to build the UK’s largest AI data centre in a deal with Nscale. The global tech giant, which had previously planned to fund a supercomputer at the site, has ended its involvement in the partnership following concerns over supply issues. Plans were first announced last year, with Nscale pledging [...]
Oxford AI chip startup raises $125m to tackle data centre power crunch October 14, 2026 Oxford-based chip startup Salience Labs has raised $125m (£94m) from investors, including AMD and Intel, as the race to build AI data centres puts growing pressure on electricity supplies. The funding round, led by Bullhound Capital, is set to help the British firm scale production of its photonic chips, which use light rather than electrical [...]
City lawyers say GPU financing is the new data centre gold rush October 14, 2026 As AI drives demand for larger data centres, lenders are increasingly financing the costly Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) inside them, which can cost almost as much as the buildings themselves. Data suggests that since the generative AI boom took off in 2023, global investment in GPUs and AI chip infrastructure has been staggering, with figures [...]
Drone strikes and noise disputes: The soaring risks of the global data centre boom September 18, 2026 As data centres scale, consume more power, and draw tighter community scrutiny, insurance risks are becoming increasingly complex. As AI infrastructure grows, so do legal risks: large lawsuits involving data centres more than tripled from four in all of 2021 to 14 in the first half of 2026, according to a Howden report. Planning and [...]