Brookfield targets $27B AI data center at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire

The £20 billion investment would turn a biomass power site into one of Europe's largest AI compute hubs, with first operations targeted for early 2028. Brookfield Asset Management is betting big on British energy infrastructure, announcing a plan to build a gigawatt-scale AI data center at the Drax Power Station estate in North Yorkshire that could attract more than £20 billion, or approximately $26.8 billion, in total investment over its lifetime. Drax Group confirmed the agreement on Tuesday, saying it has signed a joint development deal with Brookfield and Radiant, Brookfield’s neocloud platform, to co-develop the facility on the Drax site. Drax shares surged more than 8% following the announcement. What’s actually being built here The project is structured in phases. The first phase carries an initial outlay of £2.5 billion, or approximately $3.4 billion, targeting 100 megawatts of compute capacity with commercial operations expected to begin in Q1 2028. Subsequent phases are designed to add another 500 MW between 2028 and 2031, with an ultimate goal of exceeding 1 GW of aggregate capacity across the full buildout. Funding for the first phase is expected to draw in part on Broo...