Drax, Brookfield and Radiant plan a GW-scale AI data centre at Drax Power Station, with investment that could top £20B

What's the deal? UK power company DraxDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has signed an agreement with Brookfield and RadiantDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Brookfield's UK-headquartered AI infrastructure platform, to jointly develop, deliver and operate an AI data centre on the Drax Power Station estate near Selby, North Yorkshire. Capital and operating support come through the Brookfield-Qai AI infrastructure joint venture. Brookfield estimates total investment, including chips, could exceed £20B (about $26.8B), with an initial £2.5B for the first phase. Drax shares rose more than 8% on the news on 3 November.

The plan: Phase 1 targets up to 100MW, drawing power from the grid and operational from Q1 2028. Phase 2 aims to add 500MW between 2028 and 2031, powered behind the meter by the station's own generation under a long-term power purchase agreement. Phase 3 would take the site beyond 1GW after 2031. Radiant leads design, customers and commercialisation and wants anchor customer commitments before construction starts; Drax handles land, power integration and planning. Phase 1 still needs planning, regulatory and network approvals, a tenant and final investment decisions, and public consultation starts in November.

Why it matters: The estate has about 4GW of grid access and 2.6GW of dispatchable generation on 1,000 acres, rare in a country where more than 50GW of data centre projects are waiting in the transmission queue, according to Radiant CEO Mahdi Yahya. It is one of the largest sovereign compute projects announced in the UK so far, although critics have questioned the low-carbon claims of a site powered by burning wood pellets.

Sources: Drax RNS, Drax press release, CNBC, Radiant.