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Latest / Chips, compute and energy

DealComputeUKConfirmed

Drax strikes £20bn deal for AI datacentre at North Yorkshire power plant

See how this story connects

Source: The GuardianAlso reported by The Register, CNBC

Drax, the FTSE 250 owner of the Drax power station in North Yorkshire, has struck a deal with the infrastructure investor Brookfield and the AI infrastructure platform Radiant to develop a datacentre with an eventual capacity of more than 1 gigawatt on the site. Drax said the development could attract more than £20bn ($26.8bn) of investment, and phase one could be operational from the first quarter of 2028 with up to 100MW of compute capacity. Drax will provide land and existing grid connections at first and hopes to power the datacentre directly by the early 2030s.

Why it matters

Drax will provide land and existing grid connections at the site, and will have access to only half its current subsidies from 2027 to 2031.

When
3 Nov 2026
ID
WTA-N-2026-0652
Who
Drax, Brookfield, Radiant; Will Gardiner

Summary written with AI by wheresthe.ai, from The Guardian and the reporting credited above. Checked against the source on 3 Nov 2026.

Read the original at The Guardian

Source copy: saved on 4 Nov 2026 to check this story and not republished, because the text belongs to its publisher. Also held by the Internet Archive.

Next stop on this Storyline: Elsewhere: OhioOhio voters back data centre bans or limits in at least 14 municipalities

Cite this story

WTA-N-2026-0652: “Drax strikes £20bn deal for AI datacentre at North Yorkshire power plant.” wheresthe.ai, 3 Nov 2026. https://wheresthe.ai/d/gb-drax-strikes-20bn-deal-for-ai-datacentre-at-north-yorkshi-2026-11/ (source: The Guardian).

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