Catching the AI wave - reflecting on my first PTC

I must admit that during my 19-years data centre tenure, I’ve avoided PTC. The journey, going to a data centre event in Hawaii, and trying to convince family and friends that it’s not a jolly, has somewhat discouraged me in the past. 

My colleagues Doug and Bob - both veteran PTC attendees - convinced me otherwise, and I’m delighted they did. For the most part, it’s been a surreal experience, meeting customers and industry colleagues alongside families enjoying the sunshine and the fantastic Waikiki beaches, but also a great opportunity to understand what is happening elsewhere in the market other than Europe.

Last June I attended the European DataCloud event in Cannes. This heralded Europe’s AI data centre inflection point, with hyperscalers taking to the stage and sharing their AI growth plans with the marketplace. 

Likewise, the growth of data centre capacity, driven by AI requirements has certainly been the main theme of the PTC event, unsurprisingly, and the undertakings in the US to facilitate this demand are truly extraordinary. Recommissioning nuclear power stations, 200MW AI deployments, 5GW data centre campuses, the list is extensive and in the Gigawatt-region, far from the Megawatts of the past. 

Adding to the AI hysteria, during the event President Trump announced the Stargate project, with a $500 billion dollar investment commitment, supported by OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle, to build data centres and create 100,000 US jobs – a move which firmly positioned the US as the AI global lead. There will, for example, be 20 data centres constructed in Texas at half a million square feet each to support this huge AI GPU deployment. 

So now that I’m returning to the UK, how does this experience and learning adjust my thinking on what needs to be done to enable the UK’s AI success? 

Two weeks ago, the UK’s “AI Opportunities Action Plan” was launched by the Prime Minster, Kier Starmer and Matt Clifford, and there is growing acknowledgment that the UK is in danger of falling behind in the AI arms race. Fundamentally for the UK to take hold of the AI opportunity, significant AI compute is required, and importantly suitable data centres, engineered for AI, necessary to house it. 

Over the last 2 years we’ve been lobbying both TechUK and DSIT on the importance of data centres, i.e. where the Internet, Cloud computing and now AI lives. We’ve also discussed the challenges the UK faces in delivering suitable scaled facilities within the next 5 years, and enough power to support the AI growth plans, in turn driving economic growth. 

So, we were delighted with the announcement of the AI Growth Zones (AIGZs) for data centres - firstly acknowledging the importance of what we all do as an industry (which has never happened previously at this level) but also marking the beginnings of a UK wide data centre strategy as part of the country’s Critical National Infrastructure.

As a country that’s ranked third for AI leadership globally, we now have the opportunity to shape our future data centre UK footprint and an “in-road” to push hard on planning - unpicking the power infrastructure complexities, the shortfalls, and seeking to reduce our power costs, otherwise we will be deemed far too expensive for outside investment. 

All of this new infrastructure – both data centre and power – needs to be achieved before the end of the decade, otherwise we, the UK, will fall well short of the Government’s AI global leadership ambitions, and as we’re witnessing in real-time, the USA is moving swiftly, with huge investments.

I’ve found that PTC has provided objectivity, reflection and perspective. The sense of excitement from our customers on their AI plans is palpable, and the ambition, desire, and investment are clear. 

Who would have considered 12 months ago that in the space of just two weeks, the UK Prime Minster and the US President would be making national data centre announcements spurred by AI. 

We as an industry can no longer hide and we must take control of the data centre narrative now that we are well and truly in the public’s eye. The task ahead of us in the UK is clear – provide a suitable, scaled and competitive data centre platform, engineered for AI and advanced computing, before the end of the decade.