Forget call centers, local energy prices mean Britain's latest offshoring wave is AI projects

One in five UK firms have already moved AI workloads abroad due to high energy costs, in findings likely to alarm a government counting on AI to drive economic growth.

The warning is contained in the "Land, Power, Compute" report published by rent-a-GPU firm CUDO Compute, which naturally has skin in this game.

The UK is a standout case, but the data - compiled by Censuswide, which canvassed senior AI decision makers in 700 organizations - spans the US and Europe too. The study reveals how the cost and availability of power is reshaping where AI infrastructure gets built, and where AI applications will ultimately live.

Billions spent racing to acquire GPUs and cloud capacity are running into a hard constraint: in many places, the facilities to host them can't be built fast enough, held back by planning delays and slow grid connections.

In Santa Clara, California - home of Nvidia - nearly ...