(Jan 13): The UK is planning special districts for constructing data centres and will explore dedicating nuclear energy to the sites as part of a Labour government project to boost technology growth and the ecosystem for artificial intelligence (AI).

These “AI Growth Zones” will include enhanced access to electricity and easier planning approvals for data centres, the government said on Sunday. It said the first such zone will be in Culham, home of the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

The government will form an energy council, composed of public and private officials, that will explore powering the data centres with small modular reactors that rely on nuclear fission technology. The latest AI systems are incredibly energy intensive, and the explosion of interest in the field has prompted a hunt for new sources of power across the globe.

The plan is part of a broader set of proposals to harness AI for public services, expand supercomputing projects, and attract technical talent to the UK. Vantage Data Centers said it will invest more than £12 billion (US$14.6 billion, or RM65.87 billion) in data centres across the UK as part of the initiative. Nscale, another data centre company, said it will spend US$2.5 billion over three years.

Keir Starmer’s Labour party has framed AI as central to its economic agenda, but has been slow to introduce policies and faced criticism for confusing early messaging on the topic. Britian’s bond market is currently in turmoil, a sign that investors have lost faith in the government’s ability to manage debt.

Uploaded by Jason Ng