technologyreseller.co.uk 31 CUDO Compute, a UK-based full-stack AI infrastructure provider, has released new research highlighting a disconnect between the UK’s AI sovereignty ambitions and the practical realities of energy pricing and infrastructure restraints. While almost half (46%) of UK organisations say geopolitical instability is pushing them to keep AI workloads within home markets, with 31% prioritising sovereign or regionally controlled compute even if it comes at a higher cost, 43% say cost and performance considerations still carry more weight than sovereignty in deployment decisions. Indeed, 20% of British firms polled say they have already moved AI workloads out of the UK due to high power costs, with one third saying energy costs are limiting their ability to scale AI operations. Companies building and running the most compute-intensive workloads are the most likely to look beyond the UK when economics tighten, with 32% of AI-first businesses saying they would consider moving workloads overseas due to power costs, compared to 18% of enterprise organisations. The US is the most attractive location for new AI cluster capacity, followed by India (62%), Eastern Europe (58%), Western Europe (45%) and the Nordics (44%). CUDO Compute commissioned the research to coincide with the launch of its Land, Power, Compute Report, which highlights the extent to which access to land, affordable energy and scalable compute, or the lack of it, is constraining the growth of physical AI infrastructure in the UK. CUDO Compute CEO Matt Hawkins said: “AI sovereignty is being hotly discussed as a priority for UK organisations, but it only works if the infrastructure exists to support it. What we are seeing is a growing tension between where businesses want to run AI and where they actually can. AI is not abstract software. It is physical infrastructure that depends on power, land, cooling and grid access. When those constraints tighten, economics take over. If it is cheaper or easier to run workloads elsewhere, they will move, regardless of sovereignty ambitions.” He added: “Right now, every UK boardroom is talking about AI, but almost nobody is talking about the infrastructure needed to power it. Until we close that gap, there will continue to be a disconnect between policy, ambition and reality. The countries that solve this first will shape the future of AI. The UK still has a window to lead, but it needs to act quickly.” Founded in Bournemouth, CUDO Compute designs, builds and operates high-performance GPU infrastructure across secure, compliant and renewable-powered data centres in the UK and Europe, delivering fully managed, enterprise-grade GPU clusters for training and inference environments. https://www.cudocompute.com/ Power costs trump sovereignty in AI deployment calculations INFRASTRUCTURE Stonesthro and Cornerstone collaborate on micro-edge computing PoC StonesThro, a UK-based edge cloud specialist, and Cornerstone, a UK mobile infrastructure services provider, have successfully completed a micro-edge computing Proof of Concept (PoC) that points the way to a distributed, green and secure alternative to traditional cloud and onpremises solutions. The trials, conducted across sites in Southampton, Solihull and Milton Keynes, show that high-performance data centre technology deployed directly into external infrastructure environments can deliver sub-10ms latency, essential for many IoT applications such as drone and autonomous vehicle technology, while significantly reducing the carbon footprint of AI and data processing. Gregg Mearing, CTO of Stonesthro, said: “This PoC proves that it is entirely possible to take the compute power usually locked away in massive warehouses and deploy it in the regions where it is actually needed and can make a noticeable societal difference. It’s about making the cloud local, sovereign and sustainable.” Following the success of their PoC, which married Stonesthro’s edge cloud expertise and bespoke hardware/software combination with Cornerstone’s mobile infrastructure capabilities, the two partners are now working on their next 10 to 20 sites, with a vision to scale to a thousand sites nationally. Mearing said: “A core objective of our mission is to address the AI power requirement challenge. Traditional data centres are often clustered south of Watford, requiring massive power transmission from the North of the UK. The National Grid consumes approximately 8% of all power generated just by moving it across the country. By moving compute to the micro‑edge and the regions closer to where power is generated, we can eliminate that transmission waste.” He added: “Furthermore, our partnership uses existing infrastructure and more efficient cooling processes, avoiding the carbon cost of laying new cables for ‘Big Data’ centres.” www.Stonesthro.co.uk www.cornerstone.network Gregg Mearing Matt Hawkins
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