(Aug 18): DataVita secured £300 million (RM1.64 billion) of financing from ING, ABN AMRO and other European banks as it bids to expand an existing data centre in Scotland and build another.
The UK’s National Wealth Fund helped unlock the funding by guaranteeing 80% of the £252 million tranche provided by the two Dutch banks and Spain’s Santander, the Business Department said on Tuesday in a statement. The UK Treasury-owned fund operates at arm's length from the government.
The remainder of the package is being provided on an uncovered basis by the Scottish National Investment Bank and Siemens Financial Services. The department also said computing giant Dell would be moving its Scottish headquarters to the site.
The investment marks a key sign of life for Britain’s so-called AI growth zones under new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, whose predecessor, Keir Starmer, made them a key pillar of the Labour government’s policy on artificial intelligence. The programme's future had come into question when OpenAI announced in April that it was pulling back from Stargate UK and then after Starmer’s departure.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds on Tuesday explicitly linked the growth zone policy to Burnham’s policy of promoting regional growth.
“This investment, and Dell’s decision to back brilliant talent in Lanarkshire, is proof that our AI growth zones are already playing their part in re-industrialising Britain and delivering good growth in every postcode,” said Reynolds.
Designed to make the UK globally competitive in AI by giving certain regions planning permission and grid-connection advantages, the growth zones have attracted investment announcements from AI heavyweights. OpenAI, Nvidia and Nscale were among the companies attached to the Stargate UK project announced for northeast England while CoreWeave was announced as a key partner for DataVita’s Lanarkshire campus.
“There is plenty of talk about AI infrastructure just now,” DataVita CEO Danny Quinn said in the government statement. “This project is being delivered: work is well advanced on site, every megawatt is contracted and the first facility completes this year.”
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