The UK government has said that the country needs to deploy “at least” 6GW of AI-capable data center capacity by 2030 to remain competitive.

The figure was revealed in the newly-published UK Compute Roadmap paper, created by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

That 6GW represents a threefold increase in the data center capacity available in the UK today, DSIT said.

Greater London is one of the world’s largest data center markets, but “existing facilities are geared toward general-purpose enterprise computing, lacking the density, energy integration, and technical design needed for high-intensity AI workloads,” the government warned.

“Meanwhile, other countries are moving fast. The United States, United Arab Emirates, and several European nations are building out dedicated AI campuses that will each surpass 1GW of capacity.”

The paper reiterates several pro-data center proposals from the UK’s Labour government, which were previously unveiled in January as part of its new AI Opportunities Action Plan.

Core is a plan to establish a number of ‘AI Growth Zones,” areas across the country that will speed up data center planning approvals, energy connections, and overseas investment.

Each of these sites should support at least 500MW, “with at least one AI Growth Zone scaling to more than 1GW by 2030,” the paper said.

The government plans to confirm and commence development of the first AI Growth Zones by the end of this year, delivering sites across the UK, “including in Scotland and Wales.”

Ahead of the larger zones, the government has also favored data center development over local opposition. This month, the Secretary of State overruled a local council and granted permission to build a 90MW hyperscale data center in a former landfill site in Iver, Buckinghamshire.

This is the third time that Rayner, via housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook, has stepped in to approve the construction of a data center despite local opposition, including her recent decision to allow Greystoke Land to build a £1bn ($1.32bn) data center in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire.

The larger AI Zone projects may struggle to find power on a constrained UK grid with a connections backlog, so DSIT said that the government would “support the development of behind-the-meter, low-carbon energy solutions – designing campuses that are more self-reliant, easier to scale, and better aligned with local energy capacity. We will explore low-carbon onsite generation, microgrids, battery storage, and flexible demand systems.”

It will also explore advanced nuclear options, such as small modular reactors (SMRs). This week, the UK’s grid manager NESO published a paper that said up to 41 SMRs could be deployed in the country by 2050.

Alongside seeking commercial data center operators – with the government claiming £44bn ($59bn) of private sector investment in AI data centers over the last 12 months – the state is also increasing its supercomputing spend.

The government has committed up to £2bn ($2.69bn) by 2030 to build a modern public compute ecosystem, with half of that going to increasing the new AI Research Resource (AIRR) by 20x. £750m ($1bn) will go to a new supercomputer at the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, expected to go live in 2027.

This week, the second phase of the Isambard-AI supercomputer went live, making the 5MW, £225 million ($302m) system the fastest in the country. DCD visited the supercomputer yesterday.

More broadly, the government hopes to use the growth zones and the research clusters as a way to foster a wider tech movement. “This includes trialling advanced robotics, automated services, and new AI paradigms, as well as fostering collaboration between start-ups, research institutes, and industry,” the paper said.

Through the ChipStart UK incubator, National Semiconductor Centre, and National Quantum Technologies Programme, the government also hopes to help the development of new chip technologies.

DIST and UKRI said that compute was “a priority area for Sovereign AI,” a new unit that will offer strategic backing, capital, and infrastructure access to accelerate promising technologies.

Earlier this month, the unit began hiring for a head of ventures – albeit for a low salary of £67,250-79,440 ($91,421-108,000).

“Without urgent action, the UK risks being left behind – over-reliant on foreign infrastructure and missing the opportunity to embed AI capability into our economy and to anchor the next generation of AI companies here at home,” the paper states.

“That is why now is the time to build.”