Bill McDermott, Chairman, President & CEO, ServiceNow, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on January 17, 2024.
Adam Galici | CNBC
The business software giant ServiceNow and AI-focused startup CoreWeave have announced plans to invest billions of dollars in the UK, in a vote of confidence in Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he tries to attract foreign investment.
ServiceNow has said it will invest $1.5 billion in the UK over the next five years as it grows its UK business. The US-based company plans to expand its presence in the UK with new office space and increase its staff base beyond the 1,000 people it currently employs.
ServiceNow also said it will invest the cash in localizing data processing for its large language models (LLM), the artificial intelligence models that rely on vast amounts of training data to be able to understand and generate human-like text.
The company said it would bring Nvidia GPUs (graphics processing units) in its data centers based in London and Newport, Wales to support data processing for its UK LLMs.
Policymakers and regulators in Europe are increasingly calling for so-called artificial intelligence dominance. This refers to the idea that the technologies and data underpinning advanced AI systems should be stored in Europe and more accurately reflect the culture and history of Europeans.
Meanwhile, cloud computing company CoreWeave, which rents out expensive GPUs to developers who want to train and run large artificial intelligence models, said it would invest £750 million ($978.6 million) to support UK demand Vassiliou for artificial intelligence infrastructure – its second major investment in the country after announcing a £1bn commitment in May.
Meanwhile, two US data center operators also announced plans to invest billions in UK One firm CyrusOne said it plans to expand its investment in the country to £2.5 billion over the next few years, while another, CloudHQ , has committed to developing a new £1.9 billion campus data center in Didcot, Oxfordshire.
In total, investment in cloud infrastructure stands at £6.3 billion, according to the UK government.
“Today’s drumbeat of investment is a vote of confidence in Britain and our approach to working with business to deliver sustainable growth for all,” UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said in a statement on Monday.
Upskilling programs
ServiceNow said it also plans to offer new skills programs in the UK that will reach 240,000 people.
“The UK is embracing technology transformation at scale. In this new age of artificial intelligence, the country continues to be a world leader in driving innovation to benefit all its communities,” said Bill McDermott, CEO of ServiceNow, in statement on Monday.
“Our investment accelerates the UK’s drive to put AI to work, empowering people, enriching experiences and strengthening social bonds. Together, ServiceNow and our customers across the UK are delivering a future where technology it benefits everyone.”
The announcements were made on the sidelines of the International Investment Forum, where UK leader Keir Starmer is to gather 300 business leaders to encourage foreign investment.
ServiceNow, CoreWeave, CyrusOne and CloudHQ aren’t the only US tech companies betting big on the UK as a global destination for AI innovation. Earlier this year, Salesforce has opened its first global AI center in London, a space it uses to facilitate AI training and upgrade programs as well as promote industry collaboration.
The AI center is part of a $4 billion investment Salesforce committed to making in the UK over five years last June.