Qatar Fund and Brookfield to Put $3.4B Into UK AI Data Center

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, Qai, has invested together with investment manager Brookfield in a data centre project at the Drax power plant in North England. A 1GW data centre would be built there — making it the biggest in the UK. Qai and Brookfield want to put $3.4 billion into the project.

It’s the first investment out of a bigger joint venture between Qai and Brookfield to invest $20 billion into artificial intelligence infrastructure. The Drax power plant already has access to electricity, something that’s crucial since the lack of power is one of the main reasons why there aren’t more data centres being built globally. But before construction can begin, the project needs to get planning permission, regulatory clearance and find a customer who wants to rent the space, meaning the project isn’t guaranteed to happen.