Alphabet rolls out £5bn UK AI push as Trump touches down

Google’s parent Alphabet is dropping a cool £5 billion ($6.8bn) into UK AI over the next two years — a splashy mix of infrastructure and science funding timed just ahead of President Donald Trump’s state visit.

The headline items: a $1bn (£735m) Google data centre opening in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves cutting the ribbon on Tuesday, plus fresh backing for London-based Google DeepMind, led by Nobel laureate Sir Demis Hassabis, to accelerate “pioneering” research in science and healthcare.

Ruth Porat, Alphabet and Google’s president and CIO, told the BBC there are “profound opportunities in the UK” and hailed a budding “US-UK special technology relationship.” She praised the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan but warned the upside of the AI boom “is not a foregone conclusion.”

Team Treasury is thrilled. Reeves called it a “powerful vote of confidence” in the UK economy and in the transatlantic partnership. Google reckons the programme could help generate about 8,250 jobs a year at UK businesses and add heft to Britain’s AI ambitions just as more big US deals are expected during Trump’s visit.

On the ground, the Waltham Cross site will run air cooling (not water) and capture waste heat for nearby homes and schools. Alphabet has also struck a deal with Shell that it says will get its UK operations to ~95% carbon-free energy in 2026, while admitting the grid still needs modernising because “the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine.”

The investment lands as Alphabet joins the $3 trillion market-cap club alongside Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple. Google’s stock has surged after courts declined to break up the company, and CEO Sundar Pichai’s “AI-first” pivot is getting the credit.

There’s also a note of caution from Porat: if firms use AI only to cut costs, the broader economy won’t feel the gains. Her pitch — especially for sectors like nursing and radiology — is AI “collaborating with people rather than replacing them,” and for everyone to start using it rather than “watching from the sidelines.”

Bottom line: Big Tech money is rolling into Britain, starting with Alphabet’s £5bn bet. Data centres, DeepMind and a greener power mix today; the test is turning all that into lasting jobs, faster science — and an AI edge that outlives the state-visit fanfare.

Reuters, BBC, CNBC, and the Guardian contributed to this report.