Nebius secures UK AI lab deals and welcomes non‑compete changes

Nebius, a European AI infrastructure firm, has struck deals with several early‑stage UK AI labs as it seeks to grow its compute and infrastructure offering in the country. The company builds and operates data centres packed with GPUs and then gives AI and enterprise firms access to that power, also supplying specialised software to run AI applications. Earlier this year Nebius announced a £1.7bn UK build‑out, adding new sites and expanding its London hub, its main R&D and go‑to‑market centre. Nebius now operates four data‑centre sites in the UK, plus facilities in Finland and France, and has secured compute contracts with firms such as Revolut and Prima Mente.

Tierney, Nebius’ EMEA general manager, said the firm is working with a number of exciting UK AI labs that are emerging from stealth. Examples include Ineffable Intelligence, founded by former DeepMind lead David Silver; Inherent, founded by former DeepMind, Microsoft and White House staff; and Recursive Superintelligence, co‑founded by German computer scientist Richard Socher. Ineffable Intelligence recently struck a deal with Google Cloud to become its preferred cloud partner. Tierney did not reveal which other labs are involved, noting they are either still in stealth or have just come out.

Tierney said public backlash against data‑centre development in the UK is not a reason for Nebius to avoid investing, pointing to the country’s talent density and its plans to expand further. He also noted he was pleased the UK government was planning to ease restrictive non‑compete clauses in workers’ employment contracts, saying that removing such clauses could help more labs and frontier builders emerge in London.