Nebius Scales AI Infrastructure Across Ark's Surrey Campus

Across the data centre sector, GPU racks are filling up almost as quickly as operators are switching them on.

Cloud providers are racing to secure power and cooling for ever-larger AI workloads. At Ark Data Centres’ Longcross Park campus in Surrey, that pressure has pushed one facility to full occupancy.

AI cloud provider Nebius has increased its deployment throughout the facility and has taken the remaining capacity inside the LP01 building.

The deal has given Ark another marker in the race to support large-scale AI infrastructure in the UK, with the company establishing Longcross as a campus built for high-density GPU workloads and hyperscaler-grade operations.

The move also expands Nebius' UK footprint as business and research organisations increase their use of AI tools that rely on GPU-intensive infrastructure.

The Longcross site already operates with 16MW of live capacity, while another 3MW is currently under delivery.

Ark has also secured planning permission for the next stage of development at the campus, including a new data centre building and upgrades designed to support denser deployments.

AI workloads reshape campus demand

Before deciding to expand further within the Surrey campus, Nebius had already deployed infrastructure at Longcross.

The company said that the decision follows the performance and reliability of the infrastructure already in place.

The deployment supports AI workloads across sectors including healthcare and scientific research.

Those applications include earlier disease detection and data-led drug discovery, both of which require large volumes of compute power and fast access to processing resources.

Huw Owen, CEO of Ark Data Centres, said: “Demand for high-performance AI infrastructure is no longer theoretical – it is live, operational and growing.

“Seeing customers scale from initial deployments to full-building occupancy is a clear validation of what has been delivered at Longcross.

“Securing planning permission for the next phase of development allows us to build on that momentum and continue supporting customers as their requirements evolve, while reinforcing our long-term commitment to enabling advanced digital infrastructure in the UK.”

Longcross expansion targets higher-density deployments

Alongside the Nebius expansion, Ark has gained approval for an updated development phase at Longcross.

The plans include vertical extensions to existing buildings, a new facility called DC03 and wider upgrades to campus infrastructure.

The company said that the additions allow the site to handle higher-density deployments and changing customer requirements while maintaining the campus’ environmental framework.

Ark has pointed to live customer deployments and active scaling activity as evidence of sustained demand.

The focus on operational infrastructure also reflects a wider market issue in the UK data centre sector, as grid connection challenges and rising power requirement slow the delivery of new facilities.

By securing additional planning permission now, Ark is giving itself more room to expand capacity at a time when operators compete for available land and power allocation.

Nebius expands UK AI infrastructure footprint

The expansion strengthens Nebius' infrastructure presence in the UK as AI adoption increases across enterprise and research environments.

The company operates as an AI cloud provider, offering compute infrastructure designed for machine learning and AI applications.

Those services depend on facilities capable of supporting high-performance hardware at scale.

Andrey Korolenko, Chief Infrastructure and Product Officer at Nebius, said: “The UK is an important market for AI development and deployment, and access to high-quality, operational infrastructure is critical to supporting that growth.

“Expanding our work with Ark ensures we can continue to scale our platform and support organisations building and applying AI at scale.”

The announcement highlights how AI cloud providers increasingly rely on specialist data centre operators to meet infrastructure requirements.

Facilities built for traditional enterprise colocation often require upgrades to power and cooling systems before they can support large GPU clusters.

At Longcross, Ark aims to meet those requirements through high-density infrastructure already designed for AI workloads.

With LP01 now fully occupied and further development approved, the Surrey campus has become another example of how AI demand is reshaping data centre growth strategies across the UK.