Qatar's Qai Joins Brookfield and Drax on UK AI Data Centre Brookfield Says Could Top £20 Billion

Brookfield, Drax and Radiant, Brookfield's UK-based AI infrastructure platform, announced the plan on November 3. They will develop, build and run a campus on 1,000 acres of the power station estate. The first phase will cost an initial £2.5 billion for up to 100 megawatts of capacity. The partners are aiming to start commercial operations in the first quarter of 2028.

The main attraction is Drax's existing power. The site has 4 gigawatts of grid access and 2.6 gigawatts of dispatchable generation. Developers elsewhere in Britain and Europe face long queues for new grid connections, and teaming up with established power producers is one way around them. The first phase would take its electricity from the grid through Drax's existing connection. Bisnow reported that later phases would draw power directly from the station's biomass generators.

For Qatar, the deal puts Gulf sovereign money into AI infrastructure outside the region. Qai is a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority, which Bisnow put at $526 billion in assets. The Peninsula, a Qatari newspaper, described the campus as a central part of Qai's international strategy.

"Our partnership with Brookfield, including the recently announced Drax-Radiant data centre project" forms part of that strategy, Qai chairman and managing director Abdulla Al-Misnad said. In the joint announcement he said: "we are helping to establish the infrastructure required to support the long-term growth of the UK's AI ecosystem."

Sikander Rashid, Brookfield's global head of AI infrastructure, said: "Teaming up with Drax and Qai for this project represents a major opportunity for our AI infrastructure strategy." Radiant chief executive Mahdi Yahya said: "Drax has powered Britain for more than fifty years. Together we can power its AI economy for the next fifty." Drax Group chief executive Will Gardiner said the company was "proud to be partnering with leading AI infrastructure providers on this project".

After the first phase, the partners plan to reach 500 megawatts between 2028 and 2031, which means adding about 400 megawatts. They aim for more than 1 gigawatt after 2031. Bisnow reported that Brookfield's £20 billion estimate includes spending on chips. It also reported that the campus is Brookfield's largest UK data centre project so far.

Investors liked the plan. Drax shares rose 6% to 863p on the day of the announcement, according to Place Yorkshire.

The plan is not yet secure. The first phase needs planning, regulatory and network approvals from the government and the system operator, and the partners still have to find a tenant for it. Drax has also faced questions about where it sources the wood pellets it burns. The station opened as a coal plant in the mid-1960s and switched to biomass in the 2010s. Those approvals will decide whether the first 100 megawatts can open on the early 2028 schedule.