Drax unveiled on Tuesday that it has teamed up with investment giant Brookfield and its UK-based AI infrastructure business Radiant to build the facility at its North Yorkshire site. The money would come through a joint venture between Brookfield and Qatar's Qai, although the £20 billion headline figure is more ambition than actual money on the table at this stage. The companies plan to start relatively small, at least by the standards of the AI industry's apparently bottomless appetite for electricity.
The first phase would deliver up to 100MW of capacity by early 2028, backed by a proposed £2.5 billion investment. A second phase could add another 500MW between 2028 and 2031, with further expansion taking the site beyond 1GW after that. Still, a few hurdles remain between today's announcement and a functioning AI megafactory. According to Drax's regulatory filing, the first phase still requires planning permission, regulatory and network approvals, commercial agreements, and final investment decisions.
