Google-Owner Alphabet, the fourth largest company in the world, has announced a new £5 billion ($6.8 billion) investment in UK artificial intelligence (AI).
This funding will be used for infrastructure and scientific research over the next two years. This is the first of several major US investments announced ahead of US President Donald Trump's visit to the state.
In an exclusive interview with BBC News, Google's president and chief investment officer, Ruth Pollatt told BBC News that there is “deep opportunity in the UK” for “pioneering work in advanced science.”
The company will officially open a massive $1 billion (£735 million) data centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, along with Prime Minister Rachel Reeves on Tuesday.
The investment expands the site and also includes funding London-based Deepmind, run by British Nobel Prize winner Sir Demis Hassavis.
“We currently have a US-UK special technology relationship… We run the risk of drawbacks that we need to tackle together, but there are also great opportunities for economic growth, social services and scientific advancements.” Porat said.
She pointed to supporting investment in the government's AI Opportunity Action Plan, but said “there is still much to do to land it.”
The US administration has pressed the UK to push digital services taxes on companies, including Google, in talks this year, to the UK, but will not be featured in this week's announcement.
Over the next 24 hours, billions of dollars in more UK investments are expected from the US giant.
Analysts say the pound has strengthened, partly in part as expectations for changes in interest rates and US investment flows.
Yesterday, Google owner Alphabet became the fourth company worth more than $30 in terms of total stock market value and joined other Technology Giants Nvidia, Microsoft and Meta.
Google's stock price has skyrocketed over the past month after a US court decided not to order the company to dissolve.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has successfully turned the company into an “AI First” business, saying “its performance provided that metric.”
Until this summer, Google was seen as lagging behind startups such as Openai, despite pioneering much of the key research behind large-scale language models.
Around the world, there have been concerns about data center energy use and environmental impact.
Porat said the facility was air-cooled rather than water-cooled, and the heat was “captured and relocated to heat schools and homes.”
Google has signed a contract with Shell to supply “95% carbon-free energy” to its UK investment.
In the US, the Trump administration suggests that the power needs of AI data centers will need to return to the use of carbon-intensive energy sources.
Porat said Google remains committed to building renewable energy, but said “the wind is clearly not blowing, and the sun doesn't shine every day.”
Energy efficiency was built into “all aspects of AI” microchips, models and data centers, but “modernizing the grid” was important to balance periods of excess capacity, she said.
Asked about the horrors of the graduate job crisis that sparked AI, Porat said her company “has been spending a lot of time” focusing on the AI Jobs Challenge.
“It's naive to assume there are no downsides… If companies just use AI to find efficiency, they won't see the UK economy or the benefits of the economy.”
But she added that a whole new industry has been created, new doors are opening up, and in jobs like nursing and radiology, “AI is working with people, not replacing them.”
“Each of us needs to start using AI, so we need to make sure we understand how it will help you with what you're doing, as opposed to actually looking at it from the bystanders for fear of it,” she said.
