Bill McDermott, Chairman, President & CEO ServiceNow, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 17th, 2024.

Adam Galici | CNBC

Enterprise software giant ServiceNow and AI-focused startup CoreWeave announced plans to invest billions of dollars in the U.K., in a vote of confidence for Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he looks to attract foreign investment.

ServiceNow said it would invest $1.5 billion in the U.K. over the next five years, as it grows its U.K. business. The U.S.-based company plans to expand its U.K. presence with new office space and grow its staff base beyond the 1,000 people it currently employs.

ServiceNow also said it would invest the cash into localizing the processing of data for its large language models (LLMs), artificial intelligence models that rely on vast quantities of training data to be able to understand and generate text like a human.

The firm said it would bring Nvidia GPUs (graphics processing units) to its data centers based in London and the Welsh city of Newport to support processing of data on its LLMs within the U.K. This will help support “domain specific LLMs” for U.K. clients and governments, ServiceNow said.

Policymakers and regulators in Europe have increasingly been calling for so-called AI sovereignty. This refers to the idea that the technologies and data underpinning advanced artificial intelligence systems should be stored within Europe, and more accurately reflect the culture and history of Europeans.

Cloud computing firm CoreWeave, meanwhile, which rents out expensive GPUs to developers looking to train and run large AI models, said it would invest £750 million ($978.6 million) to support U.K. demand for AI infrastructure — its second major investment in the country after announcing a £1 billion commitment in May.

Meanwhile, two U.S. data center operators also announced plans to invest billions in the U.K. One firm, CyrusOne, said it plans to expand its investment in the country to £2.5 billion over the coming years, while another, CloudHQ, committed to developing a new £1.9 billion data center campus in Didcot, Oxfordshire.

In total, the cloud infrastructure investments amount to £6.3 billion, according to the U.K. government.

“Today’s drumbeat of investment is a vote of confidence in Britain and our approach to work with business to deliver sustained growth for all,” U.K. Technology Minister Peter Kyle said in a statement Monday.

Upskilling programs

ServiceNow said it also planned to offer new skills programs in the U.K. that will reach 240,000 people.

“The United Kingdom is embracing technology transformation at scale. In this new age of AI, the country continues to be a global leader in driving innovation for the benefit of all its communities,” Bill McDermott, ServiceNow’s CEO, said in a statement Monday.

“Our investment accelerates the U.K.’s push to put AI to work, empowering people, enriching experiences, and strengthening societal bonds. Together, ServiceNow and our customers across the U.K. are delivering a future where technology benefits everyone.”   

The announcements were made as part of the International Investment Summit, where U.K. leader Keir Starmer is set to gather 300 business leaders to encourage foreign investment.

ServiceNow, CoreWeave, CyrusOne and CloudHQ aren’t the only U.S. tech firms betting big on the U.K. as a global destination for AI innovation. Earlier this year, Salesforce opened its first global AI center in London, a space it’s using to facilitate artificial intelligence training and upskilling programs as well as promote industry collaboration.

The AI center forms part of a $4 billion investment Salesforce committed to making in the U.K. over five years in June last year.