{"id":46166,"date":"2026-09-11T16:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T16:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/?p=46166"},"modified":"2026-09-11T16:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T16:07:10","slug":"focusing-on-data-centres-with-kao-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/focusing-on-data-centres-with-kao-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Focusing on data centres with Kao Data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\t
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By Miriam Uebel & L&G\u2019s Asset Management business<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Have you sent an email, used a generative AI tool or saved a document to the cloud today? If so, you\u2019ve interacted with a data centre. They\u2019re critical to our modern economy, yet sometimes misunderstood.<\/p>\n

We recently sat down with\u00a0Spencer Lamb<\/strong>, CEO of data centre provider Kao Data, and\u00a0Matteo Colombo<\/strong>, Managing Director of Digital Infrastructure at L&G, to shed some light on these assets.<\/p>\n

L&G and Kao Data have worked together for several years. How would you describe the partnership and what are the key milestones so far?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spencer Lamb (SL):<\/strong>\u00a0Put simply, the relationship with L&G has been absolutely critical to our progress since 2020. We were a one-data-centre business, and today we\u2019re a multi-site platform across the UK. Without L&G\u2019s support we wouldn\u2019t have achieved that step change, evolution and growth.<\/p>\n

Matteo Colombo (MC):<\/strong>\u00a0Kao\u2019s been a phenomenal platform for us to grow in the sector. We\u2019ve got a very dynamic, exciting company that\u2019s still in the infancy of its growth in a scalable position based on what we\u2019ve built together.<\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong>\u00a0The organisation now has a really strong foundation to harness the significant opportunity that we see within the data centre industry. And, importantly, we want to do it in the right way. Managing our supply chain and our partners effectively and correctly is important to our success.<\/p>\n

We see a material opportunity in the UK. Data centre companies like us can see significant growth in the UK by placing data centres in the right locations and embracing the general public on that journey as well.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s made the partnership successful thus far?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong>\u00a0The history and the trust that\u2019s been built over the past few years is part of the foundations of the business. That\u2019s something that doesn\u2019t always exist in companies.<\/p>\n

MC:<\/strong>\u00a0We started with one customer. Others then followed. We have helped open the door for Kao, but the team then stepped through the door and delivered. That\u2019s the nature of the partnership that we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve had a lot of customers within financial services \u2013 including us \u2013 and those customers can be some of the most difficult. So, if you can serve them, you\u2019ve proven you can serve others.<\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong>\u00a0We are UK-focused, and as data centres become more critical to the country\u2019s economic future, L&G is well positioned to help us get access to people within the public sector that can help us get things done more effectively.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s becoming clear now is the need for things like sovereign artificial intelligence. We\u2019re very well positioned to be able to provide that. In recent months we\u2019ve been able to have conversations about what data centres are, why they\u2019re important, and what the country will miss if it doesn\u2019t have policies in place to support them in the future. Having L&G beside us in that endeavour is incredibly valuable.<\/p>\n

Data centres are getting a lot of attention. Why is it important to shine a light on this sort of infrastructure? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong>\u00a0Publicly there\u2019s perhaps some scepticism of AI. Data centres in a way are the only tangible representation of AI. Perhaps we\u2019re bearing the brunt of people\u2019s concerns?<\/p>\n

In fact, these facilities are going to be contributing to future benefits to the economy and growth. Without them, the UK economy will not grow. So, there\u2019s work that the industry as a whole needs to do to change the narrative.<\/p>\n

MC:<\/strong>\u00a0The UK\u2019s data centre market remains Europe\u2019s leading market. For the UK to remain leading, it\u2019s important that stakeholders better understand data centres. They are really part of everyday life.<\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong>\u00a0Another consideration is energy. Today, we have many renewable energy projects in more remote parts of the UK. They\u2019re providing an increasingly large percentage of our energy, but they are remote so they can\u2019t always get the energy to the populations that need to consume it. Data centres can consume some of those green electrons if they\u2019re located nearer those projects.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s driving demand for data centres, and what might be required in order to meet it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong>\u00a0With 10 GW of data centre demand over the next five to 10 years, we can put 20 500 MW data centres across the country. That will require \u00a3150 billion worth of construction and investment.<\/p>\n

To get to 10 GW of capacity, the amount of construction is material. You need a huge amount of people to support you in that endeavour. Architects, mechanical consultants, structural engineers, electrical engineers. An army of lawyers. You could argue that we won\u2019t see AI take jobs \u2013 we\u2019ll see AI create jobs in industries that have been around for decades.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, in placed like Slough, which is the largest data centre market outside America, the 32 or so buildings that form its data centres require 14,000 people to keep them running. If you think about it, you can provide 14,000 jobs that support data centres in 20 locations across the country. And those jobs are highly skilled and on a long-term basis. It\u2019s a really powerful, strong story.<\/p>\n

In part two, we\u2019ll cover data centres from an investor\u2019s standpoint, while also assessing what the future might hold for these assets.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Assumptions, opinions, and estimates are provided for illustrative purposes only. There is no guarantee that any forecast will come to pass.<\/p>\n

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Disclaimer:<\/strong>\u00a0Views in this blog do not promote, and are not directly connected to any L&G product or service. Views are from a range of L&G investment professionals, may be specific to an author\u2019s particular investment region or desk, and do not necessarily reflect the views of L&G. For investment professionals only.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLink zum L&G Blog<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the first of this two-part blog series, we sit down with Spencer Lamb, CEO of Kao Data, and Matteo Colombo, Managing Director of Digital Infrastructure at L&G. The pair talk partnership and why it\u2019s critical to shine a light on data centre assets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":46167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_co_authors":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,24,10],"tags":[233,224,167],"type_content":[18,35,765,19],"class_list":["post-46166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-infrastructure","category-markets","category-real-estate","tag-infrastructure","tag-private-markets","tag-technology","type_content-article","type_content-comment","type_content-discussion","type_content-interview"],"acf":{"homepage_featured_article":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46166"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46171,"href":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46166\/revisions\/46171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46166"},{"taxonomy":"type_content","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assetphysics.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_content?post=46166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}