The Guardian has examined government plans to build Britain’s AI infrastructure for the future, finding some of these to be, in the words of one source, at best unclear and at worst “complete bunk”.
The plans in question are for AI growth zones, which are supposed to be regions where the government supports companies to build massive AI datacentre complexes, of 500MW or greater. These could be bigger than any now operating in the UK.
Ambitious plans were announced, but some of them are plainly not feasible and the government appears to have simply ignored concerns about how Britain is going to execute some of its most ambitious infrastructure projects in years.
What is an AI growth zone and what is required to build one?
AI growth zones are areas where the government wants to encourage the building of AI datacentres. The policy, as executed, appears to be an attempt to mash together two goals: creating jobs in former industrial areas and ensuring Britain stays ahead in the AI race.
The government has announced five AI growth zones so far. One of these is in Lanarkshire, east of Glasgow. Another is in North Tyneside, near Newcastle – this was the site of the Stargate UK project.
What was supposed to happen was that local authorities and companies were to apply to the government to become AI growth zones. In these applications, they were to demonstrate that they could build 500MW AI datacentres by 2030. This meant submitting evidence that their plans were technically feasible.
Bonus points if the sites could also demonstrate that they had investment and could create jobs.
Are the plans to build AI growth zones feasible?
At least in the case of Lanarkshire, the most recently announced AI growth zone, no.
The facility – as announced – is supposed to be powered by a massive amount of on-site renewable energy, and not Britain’s electricity grid. The site’s developer, DataVita, has described plans to power it that would amount to building the UK’s largest onshore windfarm in the next four years.
But that is not the real plan: in internal communications, and then in response to the Guardian, DataVita and the government acknowledged that the site would just connect to the grid.
Meanwhile, the Guardian examined if DataVita could actually build that amount of renewables in the first place, given the land it has in planning applications. The answer is very close to no, as DataVita appears to currently have roughly a 10th of the land it would need.
What happened with Stargate UK?
The Guardian also examined some plans behind Stargate UK, the AI growth zone in North Tyneside from which OpenAI recently withdrew.
It found that plans for the site appeared to come together in the short period before the US president Donald Trump’s visit to the UK last year, driven by political goals. As one source put it, the government needed “a big announcement”.
This meant that OpenAI and Nscale, which were supposed to build the site, were not involved in the…
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