Bill McDermott, Chairman, President & CEO ServiceNow, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 17th, 2024.
Adam Galici | CNBC
American enterprise software giant ServiceNow announced Monday it plans to invest $1.5 billion in the U.K. over the next five years, in a vote of confidence for Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he looks to attract foreign investment to the country.
The tech firm said the mammoth sum of cash will go toward growing its U.K. business, as it plans to expand with new office space and grow its employee base beyond the 1,000 people it hires in Britain currently.
Beyond local business expansion, ServiceNow also said it would invest the cash into localizing the processing of data for its large language models (LLMs), AI models that rely on vast quantities of training data to be able to understand and generate text like a human.
The firm said that it would bring Nvidia GPUs (graphics processing units) to its data centers based in London and the Welsh city of Newport to support processing of data on its LLMs within the U.K. This will help support “domain specific LLMs” for U.K. clients and governments, ServiceNow said.
Policymakers and regulators in Europe have increasingly been calling for so-called AI “sovereignty.” This refers to the idea that the technologies and data underpinning advanced AI systems should be stored within Europe, and more accurately reflect the culture and history of Europeans.
ServiceNow said it also planned to offer new skills programs in the U.K. that will reach 240,000 learners.
“The United Kingdom is embracing technology transformation at scale. In this new age of AI, the country continues to be a global leader in driving innovation for the benefit of all its communities,” Bill McDermott, ServiceNow’s CEO, said in a statement Monday.
“Our investment accelerates the U.K.’s push to put AI to work, empowering people, enriching experiences, and strengthening societal bonds. Together, ServiceNow and our customers across the U.K. are delivering a future where technology benefits everyone.”
The announcement was made as part of the International Investment Summit, where U.K. leader Keir Starmer is set to gather 300 business leaders to encourage foreign investment.
ServiceNow, which has a market capitalization of $194.6 billion, has seen its shares climb over 37% this year, thanks in no small part to the hype surrounding AI.
ServiceNow’s cloud-based technology is intended to help other businesses manage digital workflows. But the company hasn’t been shy in touting its own AI prowess.
Last month, ServiceNow launched Xanadu, a platform that uses a range of AI technologies including so-called “agents” to boost worker productivity. AI agents are digital assistants that are designed to help employees get tasks done with limited supervision.
In the second quarter of 2024, the company reported earnings per share of $3.13, excluding items, on $2.63 billion in revenue, beating analyst expectations.
ServiceNow isn’t the only tech giant betting big on the U.K. as a global destination for AI innovation. Earlier this year, Salesforce opened its first global AI center in London, a space it’s using to facilitate AI training and upskilling programs as well as promote industry collaboration.
The AI center forms part of a $4 billion investment Salesforce committed to making in the U.K. over five years in June last year.