Drax, Brookfield and Radiant plan a £20B AI data centre of more than 1 GW at Drax Power Station

What Drax announced

Drax Group announced on 3 November 2026 a partnership with Brookfield, Brookfield's AI infrastructure platform Radiant and Qai, the AI company of the Qatar Investment Authority, to develop data centre capacity at Drax Power Station near Selby, North Yorkshire. Drax says investment in the full development could exceed £20 billion and capacity could pass 1 GW, which would make it one of the largest data centre sites in the UK.

The first phase targets up to 100 MW and could receive £2.5 billion in backing, with operation planned from the first quarter of 2028. Drax describes an ambition to ramp to 500 MW between 2028 and 2031 and to add capacity after that. CNBC reported that Brookfield's £20 billion estimate, about $26.8 billion, includes semiconductors, so much of the total would go on chips and servers rather than buildings.

The roles are split. Drax provides land, its grid connection and power from its existing generation under a long-term power purchase agreement. Radiant leads design, customer engagement and commercialisation. Capital comes through the $20 billion AI infrastructure joint venture that Brookfield and Qai announced in December 2025. Drax shares rose about 8% on the news, according to CNBC.

Why a power station site

Grid access has become one of the hardest constraints on new data centres in Britain, with connection queues that can stretch for years. Drax says its estate already has a 4 GW grid connection and 2.6 GW of dispatchable generation on site. Drax chief executive Will Gardiner said the station is one of the few UK sites that can supply large-scale reliable power directly to data centre customers by using existing and underused generation capacity.

That generation is mostly biomass, and it is contested. Climate think tank Ember estimates the plant emitted 14.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2025, which it says makes it the UK's largest single emitter. Drax counts biomass as renewable, a position critics dispute, and the debate is likely to follow the data centre plan through planning.

The project also follows a setback. The UK government rejected a bid by North Yorkshire Council, the University of York and Drax to make the site part of an AI Growth Zone for a data centre of up to 1.2 GW, DCD reported in October. The new partnership goes ahead without that designation, which would have brought support with planning and power. The UK Budget's AI package sets out the government's wider support for AI infrastructure.

What is still open

Much of the plan is conditional. Drax says phase 1 needs planning, regulatory and network approvals from the government and other agencies, plus a tenant, and that final investment decisions have not been taken. Planning Geek noted that the 100 MW first phase has no planning permission yet, and Drax has said the application will go to planning authorities in the coming months. Securities.io reported that Radiant wants anchor customer commitments before building starts.

No tenant, chip supplier or cloud customer has been named. The companies have not said how the cost splits between buildings, power equipment and computing hardware, or how Radiant will price capacity. Other recent projects show how deals of this kind develop: LG CNS completed a 30 MW AI data centre in Jakarta that was fully leased before completion, while Google signed for 890 MW of new nuclear capacity to supply its US sites. The next signals for Drax are the planning application and a named customer. More infrastructure news is in the AI Chips hub.

Questions people ask

How big is the Drax data centre plan?

Drax says the full development could exceed 1 GW and £20 billion of investment, with a first phase of up to 100 MW backed by about £2.5 billion.

When will the Drax data centre open?

The first phase targets operation from the first quarter of 2028, but it still needs planning, regulatory and network approvals and a tenant.

What does each partner do?

Drax supplies land, grid connection and power; Radiant leads design and commercialisation; capital comes through the Brookfield and Qai joint venture.

Sources

1. Drax, Brookfield, Radiant and Qai announce £20bn partnership to deliver GW-scale data centre capacity at Drax Power Station (Drax Group, 3 Nov 2026)
2. Brookfield plans $27 billion AI data center at power station; Drax rises 8% (CNBC, 3 Nov 2026)
3. Drax partners with Brookfield and Radiant for up to 1GW data center at North Yorkshire power station (DCD, 3 Nov 2026)
4. UK gov't rejects AI Growth Zone bid to power data center with Drax biomass plant in Selby, North Yorkshire (DCD, 18 Oct 2026)
5. Brookfield and Qai Form $20 Billion Strategic Investment Partnership for AI Infrastructure (Qatar Investment Authority, 9 Dec 2025)