Microsoft pens $15B love letter to the UK with 23,000 Nvidia GPUs attached

Redmond woos Blighty with cloud and AI infrastructure splurge as Trump comes to town

Microsoft appears to have trumped Google's UK datacenter ambitions with a $15 billion investment in cloud and AI infrastructure in the country.

The money is part of a $30 billion spending spree between 2025 and 2028, although Microoft has been coy as to exactly where the cash will be spent. Google, on the other hand, has been very clear about where it is building its multibillion-dollar bit barn.

The announcement came on the eve of US President Donald Trump's state visit, and Microsoft was keen to highlight its more than four decades of involvement in the US-UK relationship. "Today," the company said, "this alliance enters another new chapter, as we work together to expand access to trusted American technology and strengthen the infrastructure that will drive economic growth and technological advancement in the AI era."

The issue of American tech giants in the era of Trump has become vexing for countries on this side of the Atlantic, where efforts are underway at some biz customers to extract themselves from the clutches of the hyperscalers.

Such controversies, including Microsoft admitting during a hearing in France that it couldn't guarantee data sovereignty, have not deterred the megacorp. "This marks the largest financial commitment we've ever made in the UK," Microsoft said.

"This investment will enable us to build the country's largest supercomputer – with more than 23,000 Nvidia GPUs – in partnership with Nscale."

In 2023, Microsoft announced a three-year, £2.5 billion investment in the UK, also aimed at AI infrastructure.

Microsoft is not alone in splashing the cash – or at least announcing that it will – in the UK to mark Trump's visit. Nvidia also announced that investment would be headed to Britain. It reiterated Microsoft's supercomputing ambitions, although it put the GPU count as more than 24,000. What's a thousand or so Nvidia GPUs between friends?

CoreWeave is to invest another £1.5 billion as part of an initiative to deploy Nvidia GPUs in Scotland.

Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said: "Today marks a historic chapter in US-United Kingdom technology collaboration. We are at the big bang of the AI era – and the United Kingdom stands in a Goldilocks position, where world-class talent, research, and industry converge."

Mark Boost, CEO of UK cloud vendor Civo, sounded a cautious note, commenting: "Clearly, international investment is vital for our AI industries, and a package of this size will do a huge amount of good for quantum, AI and nuclear projects. However, we should also be building up our homegrown tech ecosystem, and setting harder limits on the extent to which we're willing to allow overseas control of our digital infrastructure. If not, we risk sacrificing our future digital sovereignty on the altar of short-term gains."

While it is not clear exactly where the next investment will be directed (other than the aforementioned supercomputer), the UK's infrastructure has struggled to keep up with the demands of tech giant datacenters, particularly in the age of AI. Earlier this year, planning rules were loosened to permit more development, but power generation problems could still slow growth.

In May, the UK government stepped in to overturn a local council that refused planning permission. Datacenters are, after all, critical national infrastructure now.

Music to the ears of tech giants, judging by the investments, though perhaps less so for locals forced to deal with potential power shortages, or electricity price rises as is feared in the US, not to mention the environmental challenges that could come from all that AI and cloud infrastructure development. ®