Nebius has selected Kao Data’s data centre campus in Harlow for a significant AI infrastructure deployment, as it commits to a billion-dollar UK investment.

The 10-year agreement is expected to directly support AI innovation in the leading academic and research communities in the UK. It also aligns with the UK government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, which reinforces Kao Data’s Harlow campus as a strong European hub for AI research, enterprise and GPU-accelerated computing.

Additionally, the deployment will be powered by 100% renewable energy and harness direct-to-chip liquid cooling to minimise water usage – reinforcing Nebius’ approach to sustainability.

Speaking on the announcement, new Kao Data CEO Spencer Lamb said: “Today marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the Kao Data portfolio and a landmark moment in the UK’s AI ambitions. Nebius is an impressive global AI cloud operator, and we are delighted to welcome such a significant deployment into our Harlow data centre campus.”

Kao Data’s Harlow campus is home to the UK’s largest cluster of advanced AI, academic research and life science computing workloads. It combines world-class infrastructure with a strong sustainability profile that makes it well-suited to AI and high-performance computing (HPC) systems.

In addition to Harlow, the company is developing data centres in Park Royal, West London and Greater Manchester in the UK – with further capacity expected in Harlow in the next few years.

Nebius Token Factory, its Nebius AI Cloud platform and managed inference service, will be hosted within Kao Data’s Harlow campus. Nebius is one of the fastest-growing global leaders in AI cloud computing and is currently building a full-stack AI cloud platform for developers and companies, from data and model training to production deployment.

Lamb added: “This partnership proves that despite challenging macroeconomic circumstances, demand for industrial-scale, UK-based, cutting-edge AI remains high, with Kao Data the perfect platform for the latest AI workloads.”

Part of the capacity at Kao Data will be dedicated to Nebius Token Factory, a production-scale inference platform that enables AI companies and digital enterprises to deploy and optimise open AI models at scale.

Consisting of 22MW, the deployment also forms part of Nebius’ £1.7 billion (US$2.26 billion) investment into the UK announced this morning. It further highlights how Nebius plans to enhance the country’s domestic compute capacity by enabling British organisations and industry to harness the power of AI to drive economic growth via one of the UK’s largest AI cloud deployments.

The renewable campus is supported by HVO-powered generators, with its KLON-03 facility using the latest advancements in energy-efficient, direct-to-chip liquid cooling to minimise water usage. It will also ensure Nebius’ UK infrastructure is aligned with the company’s approach to sustainable AI.

“We’re pleased to be continuing our expansion in the UK with Kao Data,” said Andrey Korolenko, chief product and infrastructure officer at Nebius. “The UK is a major destination for AI and is becoming an important part of Nebius’ global footprint.

“By bringing dedicated capacity to support inference workloads, we can enable UK AI builders and enterprises to achieve their AI goals.”

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