Google’s owner to invest £5bn in UK AI ahead of Trump’s visit

Google owner Alphabet has announced a £5bn ($6.8bn) investment in UK artificial intelligence (AI) over the next two years.

The funding will go into infrastructure and scientific research, and comes as one of several large US investments expected to be unveiled ahead of US President Donald Trump’s state visit.

Google’s chief financial officer Ruth Porat told BBC News there were “profound opportunities in the UK” for its “pioneering work in advanced science”.

On Tuesday, the company will open a $1bn (£735m) data centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, alongside Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The new investment will expand this site and support London-based DeepMind, led by British AI researcher Sir Demis Hassabis, which uses AI in scientific research.

Ms Porat said there was “now a US-UK special technology relationship… there’s downside risks that we need to work on together to mitigate, but there’s also tremendous opportunity in economic growth, in social services, and advancing science”.

She credited the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan for supporting the investment but said “there’s still work to be done to land that”, adding that capturing the benefits of AI “was not a foregone conclusion”.

The US had earlier pressed the UK to soften its Digital Services Tax on companies including Google, though it is not expected to feature in this week’s announcements. Other major US companies are also expected to announce investments in the UK soon.

Alphabet became the world’s fourth company to reach a $3 trillion stock market value on Monday, joining Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple. Google’s share price has climbed recently after US courts decided not to break up the company.

CEO Sundar Pichai has pushed to make Google an “AI First” business, which Ms Porat said, “it’s that performance which has resulted in that metric”.

Ms Porat also addressed concerns about energy use, saying the Waltham Cross facility would be air-cooled and its heat “captured and redeployed to heat schools and homes”. Google has signed a deal with Shell to supply “95% carbon-free energy” for its UK operations.

While the Trump administration has suggested AI data centres could require a return to carbon-heavy energy, Ms Porat said Google remained focused on renewables, though “obviously wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine every hour of the day”. She said energy efficiency was being built into “all aspects of AI” but called for efforts to “modernise the grid” to manage power demand.

On concerns about AI reducing graduate job opportunities, Ms Porat said the company was “spending a lot of time” on the issue.

“It would be naive to assume that there isn’t a downside. If companies just use AI to find efficiencies, we’re not going to see the upside to the UK economy or any economy.”

She added that new industries and roles were emerging, especially in areas such as nursing and radiology, saying: “AI is collaborating with people rather than replacing them.

“Each one of us needs to start using AI so you can understand how it can be an assistance to what you’re doing, as opposed to actually fearing it and watching from the sidelines,” she said.

(BBC)

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