Google to invest £5 billion in U.K. AI and data centers, creating 8,250 jobs annually

Google’s parent company Alphabet is making a £5 billion ($6.8 billion) bet on Britain’s artificial intelligence ambitions, just as U.S. President Donald Trump arrives in Britain for a state visit that’s expected to bring a flurry of business deals.

The two-year commitment marks one of Alphabet’s biggest pushes in the U.K. to date. At the center of the investment is a new state-of-the-art data center in Waltham Cross, about 12 miles north of central London. The facility is expected to support growing demand for AI-driven products across Google Cloud, Workspace, Search, and Maps, Google said in a news release.

Alphabet says the project will generate around 8,250 jobs annually at U.K. businesses and represents a major lift for the Labour government, which has been under pressure to attract foreign investment. U.K. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves called the move “a powerful vote of confidence in the UK economy and the strength of our partnership with the US.”

The investment stretches beyond infrastructure. Funding will also flow into DeepMind, Google’s London-based AI unit led by Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis, which is racing to build the next generation of AI systems.

“With today’s announcement, Google is deepening our roots in the UK and helping support Great Britain’s potential with AI to add £400 billion to the economy by 2030 while also enhancing critical social services,” said Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google.

Alphabet paired the AI pledge with a renewable energy deal, signing an agreement with Shell to supply its U.K. operations. The partnership will provide a mix of renewable power, batteries, and electricity trading to help stabilize the grid and support the surge in energy demand from new data centers, CNBC reported.

“Shell’s diverse portfolio of renewable power supply, access to batteries and electricity trading and optimisation expertise enables us to meet the evolving needs of world-leading companies like Google and support the growth of data centres,” said Shell Executive Vice President David Wells.

With this investment, Alphabet joins Microsoft, which has rolled out a string of multi-billion-dollar AI and cloud investments across Europe — including projects in Germany, Spain, and Poland, and a $400 million push into Switzerland in June — as U.S. tech firms double down on their European expansion.

Alphabet’s move ties together three of the U.K.’s most pressing priorities: job creation, energy transition, and AI development. For a government eager to show Britain is still a magnet for global capital, the timing couldn’t be better.