AI news
Brookfield, Drax, and Radiant Partner on £20B AI Mega Data Center in the UK
Date: November 3, 2026
Sources: The Guardian, CNBC
Strategic Overview
Global asset manager Brookfield, its AI cloud infrastructure platform Radiant, and British utility Drax Group announced an agreement to build a hyperscale artificial intelligence data center campus at the Drax Power Station site in North Yorkshire, England. Total capital investment across the development—including advanced semiconductor hardware—is projected to exceed £20 billion ($26.8 billion), establishing one of Europe's largest AI infrastructure hubs.
Operational & Technical Highlights
- Capacity Phasing: Phase 1 targets up to 100 megawatts (MW) of operational capacity by the first quarter of 2028 with an initial capital outlay of approximately £2.5 billion. A subsequent expansion aims to deploy an additional 500 MW between 2028 and 2031, with final campus capacity projected to surpass 1 gigawatt (GW).
- Power and Grid Infrastructure: Drax provides land and direct access to its high--capacity 4 GW connection to the UK National Grid, with future provisions to supply power directly to the data center campus subject to regulatory approval.
- Execution Structure: Radiant will manage facility design and commercial AI computing operations, while Brookfield leads financing alongside co--investment partners, including the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).
Market Impact & Strategic Context
Following the announcement, shares of FTSE 250--listed Drax rose more than 8% in London trading. The initiative provides a post--2027 commercial path for the Drax site amid scheduled reductions in biomass electricity subsidies, while directly addressing compute and power shortages confronting frontier AI deployments in the UK.