The UK plans to triple domestic data center capacity by 2030 as AI minister Kanishka Narayan called for faster construction to achieve sovereign-level compute, or domestic processing capacity. Narayan said expanding capacity is a clear rationale the public can understand and support, while acknowledging concerns about AI-related risks. The government says growth must remain controlled, avoid overbuilding, give local communities a voice and deliver tangible benefits through measures such as clean-energy investment. The UK currently has roughly 2 to 2.6 GW of live data center capacity, compared with more than 50 GW in the US, while its pipeline includes more than 14 GW across 173 projects. Government support includes a £500 million Sovereign AI Fund, a £1.1 billion AI Hardware Plan and a £750 million national supercomputer in Edinburgh expected to come online by 2028. The government has promoted a data center investment plan worth up to £100 billion, presenting domestic infrastructure as a way to reduce reliance on other countries.