#data-centres

#data-centres

London has rapidly emerged as Europe's data centre capital, much to the Government's delight, but locations close to the City, where some of the UK's biggest data users are based, are rare and much prized. That is because, when it comes to financial trading in the 21st century, milliseconds matter. The shorter the physical distance between trader and data centre, the faster instructions can be processed, creating a minute but crucial competitive advantage.

Meta has appointed former Trump administration adviser Dina Powell McCormick to a newly created senior leadership role, underlining the tech giant's determination to accelerate its push into artificial intelligence infrastructure. The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp said Powell McCormick will join the company as president and vice chairman, with a remit spanning global strategy, government engagement and capital partnerships, with a particular focus on funding and scaling Meta's vast AI ambitions.

The rapid growth of "energy-hungry" data centres is delaying new homes in London, just as its housing crisis is "at its worst", a new report has warned. Data centres are giant warehouses full of powerful computers used to run digital services, such as streaming and artificial intelligence. However, they require masses of electricity from the National Grid to keep running.

An Essex couple have become the first people in the country to trial a scheme that sees them heat their home using a data centre in their garden shed. Terrence and Lesley Bridges have seen their energy bills drop dramatically, from 375 a month down to as low as 40, since they swapped their gas boiler for a HeatHub a small data centre containing more than 500 computers. Data centres are banks of computers which carry out digital tasks.

"This Tech Prosperity Deal marks a generational step change in our relationship with the US, shaping the futures of millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic," he said in a statement. "By teaming-up with world-class companies from both the UK and US, we're laying the foundations for a future where together we are world leaders in the technology of tomorrow, creating highly skilled jobs, putting more money in people's pockets and ensuring this partnership benefits every corner of the United Kingdom."

These companies need those infrastructure resources anyway, he said. They're building datacentres all over the world. Maybe they were pushed a bit forward just to meet the timetable with this week's state visit. But it's all one-way traffic. We're a kind of vassal state technologically, we really are. The moment our companies, our tech companies, start developing any scale or ambition, they have to go to California, because we don't have the growth capital here.

Aker has announced plans to build an AI 'factory' in the Arctic, leveraging abundant green energy and natural cooling for data centres.

The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities has decided to increase electricity network charges for households while reducing the charges for large users, such as data centres.