U.S. tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) has blasted the U.K. government for delaying its data center rollout because of “painful” planning procedures.
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Long Time Waiting
Clare Barclay, president of enterprise and industry for the company in Europe, said Microsoft is facing lengthy delays to secure the energy to run a new data center development in Leeds in the North of England. It wants to keep its intelligent cloud revenues surging – see below:
However, Barclay – who also chairs the Government’s Industrial Strategy Advisory Council – said planning barriers mean it may not be able to power the site until 2032.
“There are some things that we would welcome on planning: access to energy infrastructure, data centers. All that kind of stuff is really important,” she said. “The planning process is painful. Because with the planning permission that we had in Leeds, we weren’t going to get energy and power in until 2032. We’re willing to make the investment now.”
Barclay also stressed that significant energy costs are proving a challenge for many businesses operating in the UK.
She said: “On energy, there’s been some kind of sticking plaster put on it in terms of pricing. We know there’s a much bigger problem to solve though.”
U.S. Tech Turns to Blighty
Microsoft has bold ambitions in the U.K. Back in September, it announced a huge $30 billion investment in AI infrastructure by 2028.
This includes $15 billion in capital spending and another $15 billion to grow its UK operations. A major part of this plan is to build the UK’s largest supercomputer, which will feature over 23,000 high-powered graphics processing units.
Fellow tech titan Nvidia (NVDA) is also aiming to deploy tens of thousands of AI GPUs across the UK.
Barclay’s warning came as the European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde called for all obstacles to the deployment of AI to be removed without delay.
“Otherwise, we risk missing the wave of AI adoption and endangering Europe’s future,” she said.
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