Data centres are large warehouses used to house computer, telecommunications or electronic storage systems, remotely powering services such as AI applications and streaming.

In Slough alone there are 34 of them, and counting.

CloudHQ has secured planning permission for the Didcot site, which will help towards the UK’s “growing demand for AI and machine learning”, the government said.

‘Ultimate reassurance’

Hossein Fateh, CloudHQ’s founder and chief executive officer, said: “We are very excited to deliver a hyper-scale campus in the UK that is truly an extension of Slough due to our private diverse fibre optic route.

“Our site enables us to build out our campus environment to provide scale and density to meet our customers’ requirements.”

Kyle said: “Data centres power our day-to-day lives and boost innovation in growing sectors like AI.

“This is why only last month, I took steps to class UK data centres as critical national infrastructure giving the industry the ultimate reassurance the UK will always be a safe home for their investment.”

Didcot A, the former structure at the site, was first opened in 1970 and closed in March 2013. Three of its cooling towers were demolished in July 2014.

Four men were killed after its boiler house collapsed as it was being demolished in February 2016. A Thames Valley Police investigation into the incident is still ongoing.

Another three cooling towers were demolished in August 2019.