UK MoD strikes £400M cloud deal with Google

The UK Ministry of Defence has entered a £400 million agreement with Google's sovereign cloud to enhance security, analytics, and AI capabilities within UK-based datacenters, The Register reports. The MoD said the deal will support defense intelligence and enable secure information-sharing between UK agencies and international partners, including the United States, reinforcing the transatlantic security alliance. Defence Secretary John Healey described the partnership as a way to "build up our world-leading secret tech for the future," positioning the initiative as central to the Strategic Defence Review, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged will drive innovation at "a wartime pace." Google Cloud has committed to investing in local infrastructure and recruiting a UK-based specialist team to manage operations. While the MoD already uses services from AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle, this new agreement signals a diversification of cloud partnerships. The Register noted it has sought clarification on what Healey meant by "secret tech" and how the deal affects existing contracts.