Brookfield plans AI data centre at English power station

Brookfield Asset Management wants to build an AI data centre at a power station in northern England, Reuters reported. Drax, the energy company that owns the station, said it has partnered with Brookfield and Radiant, Brookfield’s AI computing platform.

Brookfield manages more than $1 trillion of assets. Its shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange as well as in New York, which its own release gives as its headquarters.

The main draw is the power station. Drax will supply the land and the grid connection, a 4-gigawatt link. In Britain that is scarce: businesses wait a long time to connect, and in October Microsoft was reported to have pulled out of a data centre near London because of grid delays, CNBC reported.

The site would exceed 1 gigawatt. If it is built in full, Brookfield estimates the total investment, chips included, could pass £20 billion (about US$26.8 billion). The first phase, £2.5 billion for up to 100 megawatts, would start in early 2028.

None of it is certain. The first phase still needs planning, regulatory and grid approvals and a tenant, Drax said, and no final investment decision has been made. Britain approved nearly £10 billion of data centres in 2025 but built less than £1 billion, Electric Insights reported.

Sources: SEC EDGAR (Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. 8-K) · Reuters · CNBC · Yahoo Finance UK · Electric Insights