Databricks to pour $850M into UK, expand London HQ

Databricks is to invest $850 million in the UK over the next three years, quadrupling its EMEA headquarters office space in London.

The company has pulled in over $26 billion in funding since it was founded in 2013. It has a substantial EMEA business and opened its regional EMEA hub office in London's Fitzrovia in October 2024. This was a state-of-the-art,  29,900 sq ft workspace covering seven floors. At that time, Databricks had over 400 employees in the UK. Now it is to quadruple its London office footprint with a new 137,000 sq ft headquarters, also in Fitzrovia. It will accommodate its team of more than 500, which is expected to grow past 1,000 over the next few years. Databricks says it's been recording 60 percent annualized growth in the UK market.

Michael Green, UK and Ireland Managing Director, said: "When we opened our first dedicated UK office and EMEA hub in 2024, we had a clear aim: to be at the heart of the UK's data and AI community, providing a space for our team and partners to come together to collaborate on the future of data and AI. This new office and investments accelerate that ambition even further."

Fitzrovia is a residential district in London, separate from the financial district and the tower block office Docklands hub downriver. It has pleasant 18th century buildings, a village-like atmosphere, and many media offices.

The new office (10 Howland Street W1, on the corner of Tottenham Court Road), with its ten floors, is in the Network W1 development, about a ten-minute walk from the 2024 office. It will have a dedicated executive briefing center for partner and customer events and also house a local research and development team, alongside other EMEA engineering locations such as Amsterdam, Berlin, and Belgrade.

The Network W1 building is being provided by office and property developer Derwent London, which says: "The scheme comprises 136,300 sq ft of offices, which are entirely pre-let to Databricks at £14.1 million pa on a 15-year lease (break at 10), and 4,900 sq ft of retail. There will be communal and private terraces with extensive landscaped areas and a double height reception with generous amenity provision. Flexible office floor plates with a floor-to-ceiling height of 2.95m and openable windows plus 259 cycle spaces, 27 showers, 180 lockers and a dedicated drying room."

Databricks says the expansion comes as the UK cements its position as Europe's leading AI hub, where companies plan to increase AI investment by an average of 40 percent over the next two years, according to research by SAP. Databricks says its customers, which include over 50 percent of the FTSE 100 Index, are helping drive this growth across the region.

Databricks says this new headquarters building complements its plans to train 100,000 people across the UK and Ireland with data and AI skills by 2028. It has also invested $10 million in the UK and Europe to provide everyone from students, hobbyists, and aspiring professional with free access to the Databricks platform.