UK announces North East AI Growth Zone

The UK Government has announced the creation of an AI Growth Zone in the North East, designated on 17 September, to drive AI infrastructure, skills and investment across Blyth and Cobalt Park.

• Main announcement & commitments: The AI Growth Zone is expected to unlock more than 5,000 new jobs and attract up to £30 billion in private investment (including £10 billion already committed by Blackstone to the Blyth site, with potential for an additional £20 billion from future partners). The designation covers sites in Blyth and Cobalt Park, and the zone will increase data-centre energy capacity to 1.1GW within the next 6 years. Announced on 17 September, the first phase of Stargate UK will see OpenAI take up to 8,000 GPUs early next year, with the possibility to expand to approximately 31,000 GPUs over time.
• Partnerships, infrastructure and timeline: The government says NVIDIA, OpenAI and British firm Nscale will partner to establish Stargate UK, a sovereign UK AI infrastructure platform to deploy OpenAI technology; Nscale also cites building a supercomputer with Microsoft. The region benefits from low-carbon and renewable energy (existing wind farms, planned solar and battery storage), university talent (Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland, Northumbria) and existing data-centre projects including QTS Cambois Data Centre Campus (due to open in 2028) and Cobalt Park locations. Contact for media: DSIT media enquiries (press@dsit.gov.uk, Mon–Fri 8:30–18:00, +44 20 7215 3000).