UK data centre and digital infrastructure provider Pulsant has completed a £10m investment in its Milton Keynes facility. The expansion introduces a new high-density data hall specifically designed to support the "sovereign compute" requirements of AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.
The investment is part of the company’s broader platformEDGE™ framework, which aims to decentralise AI-ready infrastructure away from the constrained and high-latency London markets. By positioning high-density capacity in the "Oxford-Cambridge tech supercluster," Pulsant is targeting sectors such as financial services, healthcare, and biotech that require local, low-latency processing.
Optical connectivity: The 400Gb backbone
For the optical communications sector, the significance of the Milton Keynes expansion lies in its integration into Pulsant’s national network. The facility is one of 14 UK sites interconnected by a 400Gb-capable optical network.
This high-speed fabric enables a latency of just two milliseconds to London’s primary connectivity hubs in Docklands and Slough. The site is carrier-neutral and provides diverse cable routing, offering access to more than 1,600 cloud services and network providers.
Crucially for wholesale and enterprise customers, Pulsant has confirmed that the site supports dark fibre infrastructure and optical waves, allowing for bespoke, high-bandwidth dedicated links.
“UK digital infrastructure is facing unprecedented demand,” says Rob Coupland, CEO at Pulsant. “With AI-ready capacity in short supply, bringing high performance, flexibility and choice to regional locations is critical. For organisations looking for ultra-low latency and international connectivity, Milton Keynes is a great option compared to constrained London data centres.”
Driving the "edge" AI economy
The launch aligns with the UK government’s recent £500 million commitment to domestic AI capabilities. By providing 1.2MW of purpose-built, high-density capacity in a regional hub, Pulsant is facilitating "Edge inference," the practice of running AI models closer to where the data is generated to reduce transit costs and latency.
The Milton Keynes project follows a series of strategic investments by Pulsant, including a £4.5 million upgrade to its Manchester site and the acquisition of regional centres in Birmingham and Fareham. The company intends to continue rolling out this high-density model across its national platform to meet the growing "hunger" for regional, high-performance compute power.
