A joint venture between Brookfield and Qatar Investment Authority’s AI company Qai has partnered with Drax and UK compute platform Radiant to develop a potential £20bn (€24bn) data centre platform at Drax Power Station in Northern England.
The project in North Yorkshire will receive an initial £2.5bn capital injection for a 100MW first phase, which is scheduled to become operational in the first quarter of 2028.
The project is expected to expand capacity to 500MW between 2028 and 2031, with further expansion planned beyond 2031 across the 1,000-acre site.
Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner said: “Drax Power Station is one of the few UK sites that can provide large-scale reliable power directly to data centre customers by utilising existing and underutilised generation capacity.
“We welcome the government’s recognition that strategically important data centres need faster access to power and planning. The priority now must be turning that ambition into delivery, so projects like this can move at the pace the UK needs to compete for global AI investment.”
Mahdi Yahya, CEO of Brookfield-backed Radiant, said: “We are proud to expand our UK AI compute footprint with Drax. This is a unique opportunity for the UK’s AI ecosystem to build at scale. By designing, building and operating from the UK, it will give British researchers, startups and enterprises access to frontier compute at home.
“Drax has powered Britain for more than 50 years. Together we can power its AI economy for the next 50.”
Abdulla Al-Misnad, Qai chairman and managing director, said: “This project is a major initiative under the Brookfield-Qai joint venture and forms part of our international AI infrastructure strategy.
“Drawing on the combined expertise of Qai and Brookfield in developing and managing large-scale critical infrastructure, and with Radiant and Drax delivering the project, we are helping to establish the infrastructure required to support the long-term growth of the UK’s AI ecosystem.”
Sikander Rashid, Brookfield head of AI infrastructure, said: “Teaming up with Drax and Qai for this project represents a major opportunity for our AI infrastructure strategy. Our capital and deep operating capabilities will help accelerate the construction of a critical piece of sovereign AI, delivered by Radiant, our UK-headquartered compute infrastructure platform.
“In addition to preserving hundreds of jobs, this project will also create many direct and indirect jobs around the broader Yorkshire area.”
The Drax project represents a key European expansion for Brookfield’s global AI infrastructure strategy, which is targeting up to $100bn of investments across energy, land, data centres and compute.
Launched in November 2025 in partnership with technology firm NVIDIA and the Kuwait Investment Authority, the programme is anchored by the Brookfield AI Infrastructure Fund. The platform also underpins Radiant, Brookfield’s UK-headquartered AI infrastructure operator and NVIDIA Cloud Partner.
Subsequent major commitments under the global strategy include a $20bn joint venture established with QIA subsidiary Qai in December 2025, followed by a July 2026 coalition agreement to develop a $100bn, 1.8GW data centre campus in Kentucky.
To read the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.
