Google announces £5B AI investment in UK before Trump visit (www.theguardian.com)

Google announced a £5 billion investment in the UK over the next two years to expand datacentre capacity, capital expenditure, R&D and engineering — including “pioneering” AI research via its DeepMind unit — as it opens a new Waltham Cross datacentre. The package is aimed at meeting rising demand for Google Cloud, Workspace, Search and Maps, and includes a Shell partnership to better manage renewable energy supply. Google says the spending will support the UK AI ecosystem, create an estimated 8,250 jobs annually at UK businesses, and drive advances in science, healthcare and cybersecurity. The move comes alongside reports that OpenAI and Nvidia plan major UK datacentre investments and ahead of President Trump’s state visit, underscoring renewed transatlantic tech flows. For the AI/ML community the announcement signals a substantial boost in compute and research capacity in the UK — more datacentre capacity and targeted DeepMind funding can accelerate model training, clinical/ scientific applications and infrastructure-focused work (energy and security). It also reflects wider Alphabet capital-expansion (Alphabet forecast ~$85B capex for FY2025) and validates the UK as a strategic hub for talent, regulation and investment, potentially shaping hiring, partnership and compute-cost dynamics across Europe.