A surge of compute is coming to Stockport with Kao Data’s new £350m data centre.
An exclusive report from Kao Data, a specialist in data centres engineered for AI and advanced workloads, reveals why the Greater Manchester region will be the launchpad for the UK’s next tech revolution.
An unprecedented surge of tech power is coming to the North West with Kao Data’s £350 million Stockport data centre, engineered for AI and advanced workloads. The new report reveals why the Greater Manchester region will embrace and thrive in its role as the future destination for AI, scientific research and advanced computing infrastructure.
With proposals submitted for the 40MW facility – the largest and most sustainable of its kind in the north of England – Kao Data has shared insight on why the city-region is the perfect place at the perfect time for a state-of-the-art power hub, just as growth and demand in AI reaches an all-time high.
Unlike neighbouring European countries who have two or three established tech hubs, the report, Investing in Data Centres: Why Greater Manchester?, reveals that 80% of the UK’s data centre power still comes from the M25 region – specifically West London and Slough. Moving beyond the capital and levelling-up our computing infrastructure is a must, and Greater Manchester is primed and prepared to become the next home for these facilities, removing the data centre bottleneck around London.
Greater Manchester is now the second most connected city in the UK, with the region picking up its own transatlantic-European routes, so no business has to go via London to link up with the likes of New York, Amsterdam, Frankfurt or beyond.
Not only does Greater Manchester offer unique connectivity opportunities, but it also requires new infrastructure to support its rapidly expanding economy and landscape as a tech haven. Around 10,000 digital and tech firms from SMEs to big corporations including Barclays, Deloitte and PZ Cussons are now based in Manchester, with £532 million raised by tech firms in the city-region in 2022 (78% of digital companies reported expansion in the same year). Data centres are the foundational bedrock required for tech clusters, such as these, to grow.
The installation of the data centre is also set to create jobs in an area where tech talent is being nurtured on a perpetual scale. Over 69,000 creative, digital and tech roles were advertised by Greater Manchester companies in 2022, with 29,000 STEM students at five local, world-leading higher learning institutions.
The report shows Greater Manchester as a burgeoning tech utopia in which data centres can thrive, with thorough examination of the region’s economy, industry, infrastructure, talent pool and sustainability – all supported by a well-connected, tech-savvy ecosystem and digital blueprint shaped by organisations like Manchester Digital, pro-manchester, Midas, Marketing Stockport and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
“There has never been a better moment to invest in data centres, and no better place than Greater Manchester,” said Spencer Lamb, CCO at Kao Data. “The city-region chose us as much as we chose it. This is the home of outstanding innovation on an unprecedented scale – the birthplace of modern computing thanks to Alan Turing’s pioneering work – and it needs a next generation computing platform to sustain its thundering momentum.
“Our move to Greater Manchester represents Kao Data’s first foray into the North West and it is our most ambitious to date. Completing this data centre is an exciting challenge offering a myriad of benefits to millions of people and thousands of businesses,” Lamb added.
“The report showcases why Greater Manchester is the next port of call for data centres beyond London. Having Kao Data facilities here in the burgeoning Stockport area will supercharge the North West on its journey to becoming the next destination of choice for tech companies across the UK,” said Lamb.
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