Google to invest $1b in new data centre

Search giant, Google has started building a new data centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire. The data centre will be located on a 33-acre site that Google purchased in October 2020 and, once complete, will help ensure reliable digital services to Google Cloud customers and Google users in the UK.

The new data centre represents an investment of $1 billion dollars in the country.

Google’s data centres help power popular digital services—like Google Cloud, Workspace (which includes Gmail, Docs, Sheets and more), Search and Maps—for people and organisations worldwide.

President and Chief Investment Officer, Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet and Google, Ruth Porat, said: “People and organisations worldwide rely on Google’s data centres daily for the digital services they use.

“The Waltham Cross data centre represents our latest investment in the UK and the wider digital economy at large. This investment builds upon our Saint Giles and Kings Cross office developments, our multi-year research collaboration agreement with the University of Cambridge, and the Grace Hopper subsea cable that connects the UK with the United States and Spain. This new data centre will help meet growing demand for our AI and cloud services and bring crucial compute capacity to businesses across the UK while creating construction and technical jobs for the local community. Together with the UK government, we are working to make AI more helpful and accessible for people and organisations across the country.”

Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, said: “The UK is a fantastic place to invest, and Google’s $1 billion investment is testament to the fact that the UK is a centre of excellence in technology and has huge potential for growth.

“Foreign investment creates jobs and grows all regions of our economy and investments like this will help to drive growth in the decade ahead. I will continue to back businesses to invest and innovate here in the UK.”