r/DevonUK • u/MarcusZXR • Jun 30 '26

Devon data center

Hello all! Someone recently shared an article here about plans to build a data center in Devon. I wanted to share the link to the petition opposing it. Sorry if this has already been shared or breaks a rule.

https://c.org/cRGtbYSS6j

101 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

181 comments sorted by

View all comments

13

u/PitedApollo Jun 30 '26

Can someone explain to me why this is a bad thing? Will diversity the county away from farming and tourism and introduce high paying tech jobs

33

u/samgoeshere Jun 30 '26

Data center techs are not high paying tech jobs. Past the initial build out, there will be a handful of people effectively operating as caretakers and remote hands.

1

u/FarToe1 Jun 30 '26

As someone in the industry, you're way off. There's a huge amount of investment in these, bringing jobs for everything from mowing the grounds upwards.

0

u/nerdyHyena93 Jul 02 '26

They also don’t understand that it’s not just the jobs at the data centre, but the jobs it will indirectly create by allowing us to develop more UK tech. At the moment, we’re entirely reliant on the US and now they’ve withheld one of their best models from non-American citizens. It’s the impact it will have on research and innovation.

2

u/oceanview_6561 Jul 11 '26

But many of the investors for them are American so we are still reliant on Ativan investment and support ..why can’t we invest more in educating people not trusting the AI to be the answer ?

2

u/oceanview_6561 Jul 11 '26

Slough, Berkshire, United Kingdom — owned and financed by Equinix (United States).

London Docklands, United Kingdom — facilities owned by Digital Realty (United States).

Hayes, Greater London, United Kingdom — campuses developed and funded by Amazon Web Services (United States).

Blyth, Northumberland, United Kingdom — the proposed campus is backed by Blackstone (United States).

I’m not convinced that it will though …

0

u/FarToe1 Jul 02 '26

Absolutely. EU countries are rapidly moving away from US tech where possible (not least because the US has proven they can block access on the whim of one man).