TL;DR

Private markets investor TPG is negotiating to acquire Ark Data Centres, owned by Elliott Investment Management, in a deal valuing it at roughly £3.8bn ($5bn), the Financial Times reported on Wednesday 28 October, according to Reuters. Talks continue but no deal is certain. Reuters could not confirm the report, and neither TPG nor Ark had responded to requests for comment.

What Ark brings

For UK readers, the notable part of Ark is its public sector work. Together with the Cabinet Office it runs a joint venture, Crown Hosting Data Centres, which Reuters says gives Ark access to the UK government’s full range of public data centre requirements. In our view, that makes any buyer a supplier to government as well as a data centre owner.

Elliott has owned Ark since 2012. Reuters reported in 2025 that the investor was weighing options for the business, including a sale that could raise more than £3bn ($4bn). The reported valuation now sits above that figure.

Why now

The report follows City AM’s account on 27 October that ministers are weighing a “data centre covenant” that would link faster planning and grid connections to local investment by developers, as we report separately. Grid access is the constraint behind that proposal, with the connection queue at 125GW by June 2025 on Ofgem’s figures. In our view, that queue may help explain the appetite for an established operator over a new build, although Reuters gives no detail on Ark’s sites or capacity.

Looking Forward

Until either company confirms talks, the report remains just that. If a deal does go ahead, we expect the Crown Hosting arrangement to be the detail UK public bodies watch most closely, since a new owner at a government data centre partner raises questions about continuity, contract terms and who ultimately controls the infrastructure.

Sterling figures converted at the ECB reference rate of 27 October 2026 ($1 = £0.75).