Dyson (www.dyson.co.uk/)— the technology company famous for its bagless vacuum cleaners, bladeless fans, air purifiers, hand-dryers and hair-dryers — is to establish a new 517-acre campus near its headquarters in Wiltshire as part of a £2.5 billion investment to support the development of new solid-state battery technologies, robotics, vision systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Founder Sir James Dyson said that the new campus — on a former Ministry of Defence airfield in Hullavington — will increase his company’s “UK geographical footprint ten-fold”.

The company aims initially to restore six Second World War hangars on the site and have them ready for occupation by the end of the year.

When asked whether the new site will help to build a driverless vehicle, Sir James said that it will carry out “a lot of work on batteries and other top-secret work”.

He added: “After 25 years of UK growth and continuing expansion globally, we are fast out-growing our Malmesbury campus.

“The 517-acre Hullavington campus is an investment for our future, creating a global hub for our R&D endeavours. It will enable us to continue creating world-class products and jobs right here in the Cotswolds.”

The company recently announced plans to launch the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology this September — a new university based at its Malmesbury headquarters.