As Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz has plenty of problems to reckon with. Her London borough is wrestling with entrenched poverty and the capital's highest rate of residents stuck in temporary housing. But midway through her second term, Fiaz now has a new plan to turn things around. She believes that AI could provide a multi-million pound boost to economic growth and she’s campaigning for Newham to get a share.
“Everyone just wants to hide and just get on with their business,” says Spencer Lamb, chief operating officer of Kao Data, who says his company has four UK data centers either in operation or still being built. Estimates of the number of data centers range from around 300 to over 500, with the majority clustered around London. What is widely understood is that the amount of power the sector consumes is set to explode as AI turbocharges demand.