TECH TALK
Further announcements by major global technology companies, including Stargate UK, has also strengthened the UK’ s leadership position. Google’ s £ 5 billion commitment to accelerate UK AI infrastructure, cloud services and research capability, Microsoft’ s US $ 15 billion to build the UK’ s largest supercomputer in partnership with NScale at its AI Campus in Loughton and the £ 10 billion AI campus in Blyth led by the Blackstone Group all signify 2026 to be a year defined by largescale AI infrastructure build-outs.
As hyperscalers and fast-growing neocloud providers vie to secure highdensity, AI-driven capacity in the UK, new AI Growth Zones are emerging and operators are aligning with government policies to help the country reach its economic and technological ambitions. Each growth zone is planning for more than 500MW of capacity, and operators are already grappling with much denser loads that demand innovative approaches to power, cooling and infrastructure design.
On March 4 at 11:10am, Schneider Electric’ s Vice President of Secure Power & Data Centres for the UK & Ireland, Matthew Baynes, will discuss how the UK is evolving alongside advanced technology to have a place in the AI race. The session will focus on the importance of scaling AI responsibly, prioritising energy efficiency and innovation in data centres.
Liquid cooling: Meeting the challenge of density
As rack densities soar to support AI workloads, liquid cooling has moved from an emerging technology to essential infrastructure. The challenge is no longer whether to adopt liquid cooling, but how to deploy if effectively at scale. Also, on March 4 at 12:50pm-13:15pm, Baynes will chair a panel discussion on tackling liquid cooling challenges in data centres and will unpack the innovations, risks and realities behind the technology. During the session, he will be joined by Andrew Whitmore, Vice President of Sales at Motivair by Schneider Electric, Charlie Bater, Chief Technical Officer at Black & White Engineering, Ian Francis, Global Design & Engineering SME at Digital Realty, and Alistair Barnes, Head of Mechanical Engineering at Colt Data Centre Services. They will bring together perspectives from across their experiences to unpack practical considerations operators face when deploying liquid cooling.
Schneider Electric’ s approach to this challenge combines AI Pods and Cooling
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