The UK’s AI Data Centres: Who are the Major Investors ? Part 1
After the kingpins in our third article this month, (Blackstone, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta), who are the investors behind the drive to build big in the Uk’s green 
and pleasant land?
It feels a bit like the late, great, Cilla Black speaking to a new contestant on Blind Date, but the answer to ‘who are you and where do you come from?’ is very interesting when it comes to developers of AI Data Centres.
Overview
- The market leaders after the big five (see our separate article this month) are overwhelmingly American in origin. This is driven by US private equity companies such as KKR, DigitalBridge/Soft Bank and Silver Lake. Alongside these are American REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) including Eqinix and Digital Realty. Then there are US-founded AI companies such as CoreWeave.
- The second largest non-UK source of investment is the Singaporean state capital via the TEMASEK-linked groups. This reflects Singapore’s long-standing strategic interest in the UK’s digital infrastructure.
- Japan’s capital interest is also growing rapidly, principally through SoftBank’s acquisition of DigialBridge.
- Although they lack the capital scale of the American giants, British developers such as VIRTUS, Ark, Reef Group and Tritax retain a meaningful presence in colocation, public sector, and development activity.
- A new force is emerging in the form of Middle Eastern sovereign force. The UAE-backed MGX (offices in Abu Dhabi and New York) signals an acceleration of investment as Gulf states seek to capitalise by expanding their AI infrastructure investment beyond their own region.
- Finally, there are the Canadians in the form of CPP (Canadian Pension Plan Investments), which has been actively co-investing alongside Blackstone behind the scenes in UK and European data centre financing.
September Focus on the US and Singapore
The subject is significant, so based on the overview above, this month, we will focus on the American and Singaporean companies to watch. In October, we will look in more detail at the rest. Here we breakdown American and Singaporean investment in UK Data Centres by developer, nationality and UK projects.
American Investors and Operators
1 Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX)
Headquarters in Redwood City, California
The world’s largest colocation data centre operator by revenue, with 260+ facilities globally. Equinix is currently one of the most active developers in the UK alongside its global colocation network.
In October 2025 Equinix completed its £3.9 billion acquisition of the DC01UK site at South Mimms, Hertsmere, renaming it the Hertfordshire Campus and planning 250+ MW of capacity.
In February 2026, Equinix also acquired Nordic AI data centre platform at North in a $4 billion deal alongside CPP Investments and Partners Group, expanding its high-performance computing footprint.
2 CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV)
Headquarters in Livingston, New Jersey
Described as “the AI Hyperscaler,” CoreWeave has committed a total of £2.5 billion to UK data centre capacity — £1 billion announced in January 2025 and a further £1.5 billion announced during President Trump’s state visit to the UK in September 2025.
It is backed financially by Blackstone, Nvidia, and other major investors, and is one of the fastest-growing data centre operators globally. Its UK expansion is explicitly tied to the government’s Compute Roadmap.
CoreWeave builds GPU-optimised facilities for AI training and inference, leasing capacity to AI labs, enterprises, and public sector bodies.
3 Vantage Data Centers
Headquarters in Denver, Colorado.
American, in 2024, Vantage received a $9.2 billion equity investment from DigitalBridge (US) and Silver Lake (US). Vantage has grown to employ over 2,199 people and has raised approximately $34.9 billion in funding from investors including Arcadia Investment Partners, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, GIC Private, GiantLeap Capital, and Power Sustainable
Vantage operates 37 campuses across five continents. In the UK it opened its second London campus, LHR2, at Park Royal in September 2025, adding 20 MW of IT capacity. Its LHR1 campus in Hayes, Middlesex, near Heathrow is also operational, and Vantage has a larger UK expansion pipeline under development.
4 Digital Realty Trust (NYSE: DLR)
Headquarters in Austin, Texas.
One of the world’s largest data centre REITs, Digital Realty Trust ranks among the UK’s top five data centre operators by capacity. It has a operates multiple London facilities. Digital Realty is expanding its Slough and London campus footprints.
5 CyrusOne
Headquarters Dallas, Texas.
CyrusOne is an American company, privately held; owned by KKR (see below) and Global Infrastructure Partners
CyrusOne operates in London and is expanding its UK presence. Its ownership by KKR — the American private equity giant — and Global Infrastructure Partners (now owned by BlackRock).
6 Nscale
British-founded AI infrastructure company with headquarters in US Dover, Delaware.
There is a significant operational office in New Burlington Place, Mayfair, London
Nscale is a UK-based neocloud AI infrastructure company. In March 2026, Nscale raised $2 billion in Series C funding as former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, former Yahoo! president Susan Decker and former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg joined its board. Its aim is to accelerate global expansion (by 2025 it had expanded into Portugal, the UK, the US and Iceland).
Nscale is building a facility in Loughton, Essex (targeting 45,000 Nvidia GB200 GPUs, go-live Q4 2026) and plans multiple modular UK data centres from 2025 onwards. It represents one of the few genuinely UK-founded companies in the AI data centre space, though its funding base is international, including Norway and America.
7 KKR — also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co
Headquarters in New York.
KKR’s Helix platform has committed more than $10 billion to data centre development across the US and Europe. KKR is a significant shareholder in STT GDC (Singapore Technologies Telemedia Global Data Centres), which it co-owns alongside Singapore’s Singtel in a $1.3 billion deal. STT GDC has a UK presence in London. KKR also co-owns CyrusOne (see 5 above) with GIP.
Cyrus One Inc owns and operates over 40 carrier-neutral data centres in North America, Europe, and Asia, providing colocation and peering services.
Singaporean Investment 
1 Temasek Holdings
Temasek Holdings is a Singapore-based global investment company with the Singaporean Government as its only shareholder. Headed by the Minister of Finance, the company is commercial with little interference from the government.
Temasek Holdings owns 5,115,491 shares, which is 3.4% of BlackRock shares, and valued at around $4.26 billion.
Temasek is the 13th and 14th century name for Singapore.
2 ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC)
This company is owned by a Temasek subsidiary, Singapore Technologies Telemedia, and US-owned KKR (see 7 above).
STT GDC operates data centres in London and is a significant colocation provider in the UK. Its parent, Singapore Technologies Telemedia, is wholly owned by Temasek. In February 2026 KKR increased its shareholding in STT GDC in a deal valued at $1.3 billion alongside Singtel.
3 Sembcorp Energy UK
Owned by Sembcorp Industries (a Temasek-linked conglomerate).
While primarily an energy company rather than a data centre developer, Sembcorp’s Wilton International site in Redcar is the host for the NatPower Teesside GigaPark — the largest BESS project in the UK — which is designed to power data centres and industrial users.
Next month, we look at the remaining investors in our Top Ten!