One in five UK firms shift AI work abroad amid energy pressures
21 April 2026
One in five UK companies have moved artificial intelligence workloads overseas due to high energy costs, according to new research that highlights growing strain on the country’s digital infrastructure.
The study, commissioned by CUDO Compute in partnership with Censuswide, surveyed more than 700 senior AI decision-makers across the UK, the United States and Europe.
While 46% of UK organisations say geopolitical instability is pushing them to keep AI workloads within home markets (compared to 36% overall), 43% say ‘cost and performance still outweigh sovereignty’ when it comes to deployment decisions. A third (33%) of UK organisations saying energy costs are limiting their ability to scale AI operations.
The pressure is even more pronounced among AI-first businesses where nearly a third (32%) say they would consider moving workloads overseas due to power costs, compared to 18% of enterprise organisations. Those building and running the most compute-intensive workloads are also the most likely to look beyond the UK when economics tighten.
When looking at which markets businesses are turning to, the US ranks as the most attractive location for new AI cluster capacity, with three quarters (72%) viewing it positively, followed by India (62%). Eastern Europe also scores highly with 58% viewing it as a positive location for AI deployment – above Western Europe (45%) and the Nordics (44%). China also ranks highly at 55%, above Latin America (40%), the Middle East (39%), Africa (38%) and APAC (29%).
But the wider macro environment cannot be ignored, as a third (32%) of UK organisations are ‘actively considering’ relocating workloads due to geopolitical pressures, and almost half (45%) say data sovereignty, regulatory compliance or national security concerns are shaping their AI deployment strategy, compared to 33% across Europe. One in three in the UK (31%) also say they are prioritising sovereign or regionally controlled compute, even if it comes at a higher cost. Organisations want to build in the UK – they just need the infrastructure with which to do so.
The research, which was commissioned to mark the launch of CUDO Compute’s ‘Land. Power. Compute’ report, shows that AI infrastructure is now constrained to not just algorithms or GPU access but by land availability, power economics and grid reality – where power increasingly dictates the cost of compute.
Matt Hawkins, CEO of CUDO Compute:
“AI sovereignty is being hotly discussed as a priority for UK organisations, but it only works if the infrastructure exists to support it. What we are seeing is a growing tension between where businesses want to run AI and where they actually can.
“If it is cheaper or easier to run workloads elsewhere, they will move, regardless of sovereignty ambitions.
“Right now, every UK boardroom is talking about AI, but almost nobody is talking about the infrastructure needed to power it. Until we close that gap, there will continue to be a disconnect between policy, ambition and reality.”
The ‘Land. Power. Compute.’ report explores the growing gap between AI ambition and the physical infrastructure needed to deliver it. The report highlights how limited domestic capacity is pushing organisations to look overseas, raising questions around cost, resilience and sovereignty. It argues that the future of AI will be shaped not just by innovation, but by which countries can build and control the infrastructure behind it.
