£350 million data centre planned for Stockport ex-industrial unit

Kao Data, a specialist high performance data centre developer and operator, has announced plans to invest £350 million into a new site in Stockport.

The company has secured a 39,000 sqm ex-industrial unit at Kenwood Point in Reddish for sustainable redevelopment into a 40 megawatt data centre for enterprise, cloud, HPC and AI. The move follows the acquisition of two new data centres last year, and the new Stockport site will be the first new Tier II location in Europe.

The new data centre, which is planned to become operational in late 2025, will provide space for nine data halls, creating a leading infrastructure hub to support Greater Manchester’s growing technology ecosystem and the UK’s largest high performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors outside of London and the Oxford-Cambridge arc.

Kao Data’s first data centre in the North of England will follow the organisations high performance design, efficiency and sustainability ethos and be powered by 100% renewable energy, using hydrotreated vegetable oil in its generators. The data centre will be precision-engineered to incorporate heat re-use capabilities, supporting local communities in its immediate vicinity with a valuable resource in the wake of the cost-of-living crisis.   

Spencer Lamb, Chief Commercial Officer at Kao Data, said:

“Our move into Greater Manchester marks an important next step in the continued evolution of our organisation, and we’re excited to bring our industry-leading data centre platform to one of the UK’s most influential technology and business hubs.

“We believe our new facility will set a new standard for sustainable data centres within the region and will provide a piece of foundational infrastructure that supports both Northern England’s advanced computing clusters, and the UK Governments’ ambitions to become a technological and economic powerhouse for HPC and AI.”

As AI becomes more ingrained into every facet of business and enterprise, Greater Manchester is perfectly placed to play a pivotal role in the government’s ambitions to become a world-leading superpower in science and tech. 

With the move to establish a new 40MW data centre in Manchester, Kao Data is actively supporting this mission, and the region’s technology-driven business communities. The business will be exhibiting at the DTX Manchester tech conference on the 17^th and 18^th May 2023 to make connections with the Manchester region’s technology and business ecosystems ahead of the data centre’s launch.

Natasha Taylor, Head of Research and Portfolio Development for DTX Manchester said the event was delighted to welcome Kao Data to the Northern tech community:

“This a great example of the appetite for investment in this area and the drive to innovate and deliver outstanding services to support a fast-growing technology sector.”