Microsoft announces that it is investing 22 billion pounds (about $ 30 billion) in Great Britain, to lend a hand support AI infrastructure and operating from 2025 to 2028. The investment covers $ 15 billion in investment expenditure to build a supercomputer to support the demand and adoption of AI.
“This will be responsible for over two -thirds of the total investment announcement of the technology sector in Great Britain, which are this week,” says the Vice -President and President of Microsoft Brad Smith during the press briefing in which they participate The Verge. “We focus on British pounds, not empty technological promises, because it is easy to have large numbers, but we will be good for every cent from this investment.”
Smith clearly refers to Google investments in the amount of 5 billion pounds (about $ 6.8 billion), which he announced today to lend a hand in supplying AI activities in Great Britain. Smith claims that the latest Microsoft investment in Great Britain is a “very significant increase” in relation to his own Previous investment in 2023
“This investment will allow us to build the largest supercomputer in the country – from over 23,000 advanced GPU – in cooperation with NSCale,” says Smith. “We do not invest only in Great Britain, we invest with partners in Great Britain. This includes data centers that we have today and their extension.”
Microsoft investments in multi -billion dollars in Great Britain will come on the same day President Donald Trump comes to Great Britain for a second state visit, including what is to be seen as clear cooperation between the USA and Great Britain. Smith told journalists that Trump’s administration did not ask for an investment, but was clearly confidential on the side of the UK government.
The advertisement is a large change in relation to Microsoft’s problems in Great Britain just a few years ago. Smith openly criticized the British Office for Competition and Markets (CMA) during the gigantic activist acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023. Smith said that his trust in Great Britain was “seriously shocked” after CMA originally blocked the gigantic agreement of Microsoft’s Giant Gaming, and even He said that “the European Union is a more attractive place to set up a company” than Great Britain. Later, Smith described the regulator as “hard and honest” last year and said that “he can choose slightly different words” to emphasize CMA.
Smith praised both the government of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Prime Minister Keira Starmer during his presentation with reporters. “Our ability to invest this size is based to a large extent at work, which the government performs to reform planning, increasing electricity efficiency and supporting a more stable and open regulatory environment,” says Smith.
Google also opens New data center at Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, this chancellor Rachel Reeves will call “A strong vote of confidence in the British economy and the strength of our partnership with the USA.” Microsoft managed to comment on Google at the same time and comment on an older investment, and also called him a “powerful vote of trust in the leadership of Great Britain in artificial intelligence and the most modern technology.”
The second half of the Microsoft investment worth $ 30 billion will be used to support the ongoing company’s operations in Great Britain, including 6,000 employees based in Great Britain. Microsoft closed its store with an area of 21,000 square feet at Heart of London at the beginning of this year, but the company still occupies the offices at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, the headquarters of Microsoft UK in Reading, Microsoft AI in London and elsewhere.