MIPIM VIDEO | Data centres: opportunities & challenges for property
The need for society to be connected and the rapid adoption of AI are driving the requirement for more and better digital infrastructure, including data centres, according to Thomas Pearson, partner at JMW.
“We have seen a change in the real estate sector in the last five years,” he said. “Data centres have become so important. We need them, like it or not.”
It is incumbent on the development industry to not only deliver these vital components of our national infrastructure, but to do so in the most sustainable way possible.
Data centres are energy hungry and the amount of power they require is phenomenal, particularly with the advent of AI software like ChatGPT.
“If I were to ask ChatGPT one question, it would use ten times the amount of power than if I were to just type it into Google,” Pearson explained.
Whatever the challenges, they must be overcome, he said.
“Having data centres in our country allows us to control them under our regulations and our legislation and not be reliant on a global risk in terms of control of that data and what will happen with it.”
You can hear more of Pearson’s thoughts on the rise of data centres in the UK in the video at the top of this post, or by watching the video on the Place North YouTube channel.
Learn more about JMW by visiting jmw.co.uk.
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