Google to Invest $1 Billion in UK Data Center

FILE PHOTO: A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, US, May 8, 2019. REUTERS/Paresh Dave/File Photo

Alphabet-owned Google said on Thursday it would invest $1 billion in a data center in the United Kingdom, which would expand the company's presence in the key market.
The data center will be located on a 33-acre site in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire which Google purchased in October 2020.
"This new data center will help meet growing demand for our AI and cloud services," said the company's finance chief, Ruth Porat.
Google has been operating in the UK for over 20 years and currently employs over 7,000 people in the country, Reuters reported.
Google's presence in the region also includes offices under development in Saint Giles and Kings Cross. It also has a research collaboration with the University of Cambridge.
Google's artificial intelligence subsidiary, DeepMind, is also based in London.
Alphabet's Europe, the Middle East and Africa market constituted 30% of the company's total revenue in the nine months ended Sept. 30.
Google said the new facility will be ready for an off-site heat recovery, which reuses waste heat generated from IT equipment, and will deploy an air-based cooling solution.
A lack of space is emerging as a key hurdle for these backbones of the internet that are increasingly being placed closer to cities, where limited airflow and location congestion impact cooling systems.
Analysts say that heat intensity faced by data centers crammed in city spaces can be much higher.