Cui Bono? The Crock of Gold. Who profits from building Data Storage Centres?
Building data storage centres has become one of the most lucrative investment opportunities of the 21st century. In the UK, annual construction spending is expected to rise from £1.75 billion in 2024, to £10 billion a year by 2030. Globally, in 2024, the sector attracted $290 billion in annual investment.
If we want to open our gates for a delivery driver when we are two hundred miles from home, we have to accept the necessity of Data Storage Centres. Less facetiously, if we want continued incredible developments in technology, such as remote heart monitoring, the consequence is a need for large storage facilities.
So, cui bono? Theoretically everybody benefits from the advances in technology they facilitate, but financially? In ascending order, the beneficiaries are:
- Local Economies
- Landowners
- Developers and Contractors
- Private Equity, Infrastructure Funds and REITS
- Technology Giants
Local Economies
The UK data centre sector generates approximately £4.7 billion annually in gross value added. The UK Government’s AI Growth Zones are designed to funnel this to regions including the North East and Wales. Host communities experience real but limited benefits. Under Section 106 planning agreements, data centres are obliged to contribute to local infrastructure. For example, a recent Newham project saw over £4 million committed to a local data economy programme. In addition, local authorities can gain significant amounts in business rates from large facilities.
However, once the construction phase is complete and the – largely imported – work force leaves, the boom for local hostelries and shops ends. Very few permanent staff are needed, primarily in security and maintenance. Despite a £10 billion value, the Cambois project demonstrates this issue perfectly. Is the cost of improving local infrastructure to facilitate building data storage centres (road improvements, water connections and upgrades to the grid) sufficiently offset by benefits to local economies?
Landowners
Savills has confirmed that industrial land 
values are being pushed up by the demand for space for AI-based centres. The superior financial clout behind them is outbidding traditional industrial and logistics developments for land puchases.
Amazon paid approximately $265 million for a former coal plant site in December 2025. In Didcot, Oxfordshire, a £1.9 billion data centre campus is being built on the former coal-fired power station. These are just two examples, but former military sites, retail parks and redundant warehouse land all have the potential to realise staggering sums for the landowners.
It is not just industrial sites that are providing windfalls. The potential financial gain in building huge scale Data Storage Centres on rural sites is overriding local opposition and will make some landowners very wealthy indeed. Two examples are those by X-Links Morocco to build on ‘Tarka the Otter’ territory by the River Torridge at Great Torrington, North Devon, and by Sunlaws Development Company to build a £2billion facility on the Duke of Roxburghe’s land near Duns in the Lammermuir Hills in Scotland.
Developers and Contractors
In 2024, the UK data centre construction market was valued at $13.5 billion. By 2032 it is projected to reach $23.3 billion.
Data construction is an engineering-intensive 
form of building. Electrical services account for 60-70% of build costs compared with 20-30% for conventional commercial property. Data storage centres require sophisticated cooling infrastructure, power distribution systems, advanced security technology and superior grid connection. All these require specialist contractors and equipment supplies.
Major construction contractors such as Mace, BAM and other international specialists, are recruiting aggressively to meet demand.
As a consequence, costs are expected to rise generally: mechanical and electrical costs by 6% over the next 12 months, reflecting the pressure data centre pipelines are creating.
Developers who see through projects from land acquisition to completion benefit most. However, the profits are still substantial for lower risk speculative developers and those who work with investors.
Private Equity, Infrastructure Funds and REITS: big winners.
Data centres are a metaphorical gold mine. They offer steady, long-term cash flows, high occupancy rates, long contractual commitments from creditworthy tenants and returns run at approximately 10%.
Savills euphemistically describes data centres as having ‘firmly established’ themselves as secure, long-term investments. 162 data-centre related mergers and acquisitions were completed globally in 2025. The combined values exceed $46 billion. There are a further 45 deals pending worth an estimated $35 billion.
Since 2021, between 80% and 90% of the value of all global closed data centre deals has been backed by private equity, real estate funds or infrastructure investors.
Blackstone alone, through its QTS company, has committed £10 billion to what is planned to be Europe’s larges AI data centre at Cambois in Northumberland. This will occupy 540,000 square metres and consist of 10 buildings.
Technology Giants (the Hyperscalers)
At the top of the pyramid are the big boys: Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services, Meta, and their Chinese equivalents.
They own facilities and lease enormous 
tranches of capacity in others.Microsoft and Amazon separately have committed £10.5 billion to UK data centre construction over the next 3-5 years.
Their creditworthiness underpins the entire investment ecosystem.
Conclusion
The profits sit at the top.
£59 billion has been announced as committed to UK data centre investment since 2023 and where will the returns go? Primarily to American private equity groups, US tech giants and global infrastructure funds.
There is no doubt we need data centres. BUT, for those local to data centre ‘campuses’ (original Latin meaning, ironically, ‘a field’), not only will they have lost their green space, but they also face higher bills for electricity – and as hosepipe bans are in force across the UK – a fight for water supplies.