Microsoft unveiled plans on Tuesday for a $30 billion investment in the United Kingdom by 2028, strengthening its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the region. The tech giant will allocate $15.5 billion to capital expansion and $15.1 billion to operations, aiming to construct the UK’s largest supercomputer through a partnership with British cloud computing company Nscale. The facility will feature over 23,000 advanced graphics processing units (GPUs), Microsoft said.
This announcement comes as other prominent technology firms—including Nvidia, Google, OpenAI, and Salesforce—commit significant capital to the UK as well. According to sources, the combined value of these recent investments could exceed $40 billion.
Speaking with reporters, Microsoft President Brad Smith said his outlook on the UK had improved after previously voicing criticism in 2023, when UK regulators made an attempt to bar Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. That transaction was later approved by the UK’s competition authority.
Smith pointed out that such large-scale investments would have been unlikely years ago due to a more stringent regulatory environment and lower demand for AI infrastructure. “Just a few years ago, this kind of investment would have been inconceivable because of the regulatory climate then and because there just wasn’t the need or demand for this kind of large AI investment,” he said.
In a related development, Nvidia announced plans on Tuesday for an £11 billion ($15 billion) UK investment alongside partners Nscale and US-based CoreWeave. Nvidia aims to deploy 120,000 Blackwell GPU chips in the region—the company’s most significant hardware deployment in Europe to date.
