Brookfield targets $27 billion AI data center at power station. Energy firm Drax surges 8%

Brookfield is targeting a massive artificial intelligence data center in the north of England, as Europe scrambles to develop infrastructure to support the rollout of AI amid high energy and land costs.

Energy company Drax Group said Tuesday it has signed an agreement with Brookfield and the asset manager's neocloud platform Radiant to jointly develop an AI data center on the Drax Power Station estate in North Yorkshire. London-listed shares of Drax were up 8.2% in early morning trading.

The project is initially targeting up to 100 megawatts of capacity to be operational from the first quarter of 2028, with an additional 500 MW of capacity brought online between 2028 and 2031. It is then looking to secure more than 1 gigawatt of capacity at the site by an unspecified date.

Brookfield estimates that total investment, including semiconductors, could exceed £20 billion ($26.8 billion), with an initial £2.5 billion investment as part of phase 1.