Nebius says struck deals with UK AI labs, welcomes non-compete changes

European AI infrastructure firm Nebius has announced a series of agreements with early-stage UK AI labs to bolster its compute and infrastructure capabilities in the country. Nebius, often referred to as a neocloud, specializes in designing and managing data centres packed with GPUs and providing access to these facilities for AI and enterprise companies seeking computational resources. The company also supplies specialized software for running AI applications.

Earlier this year, Nebius unveiled a £1.7bn investment plan for data centre construction across new sites, along with an expansion of its London hub, which serves as the primary European R&D and go-to-market hub. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Nebius has secured multi-billion-dollar contracts with tech giants Meta and Microsoft for AI infrastructure provision. The company operates four data centre sites in the UK, alongside facilities in Finland and France.

Nebius general manager for EMEA, Gary Tierney, expressed enthusiasm about continuing to expand in the UK, highlighting the region's talent density. Tierney mentioned that Nebius is collaborating with several promising AI labs recently emerged from stealth in the UK. Examples of such startups include Ineffable Intelligence, founded by former DeepMind employee David Silver; Inherent, established by former DeepMind, Microsoft, and White House staff; and Recursive Superintelligence, co-founded by renowned computer scientist Richard Socher.

Ineffable Intelligence has reportedly entered into a partnership with Google Cloud as its preferred cloud service provider.

Tierney addressed the criticism surrounding data centres in the UK, asserting that it should not deter investment in the region. He stated, "I don't think that is ever a reason for us not to invest in a region." Moreover, Tierney welcomed the UK government's plans to amend restrictive non-compete clauses in employment contracts.

He noted that while non-compete clauses have not been a significant issue for Nebius, the absence of such restrictions in the US allows startups to move swiftly. In the UK, with a surge of talent and funding, the presence of a non-compete clause could hinder the emergence of more AI labs and frontier builders in the country.