Nvidia announced a sweeping plan to expand artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United Kingdom, partnering with firms including Nscale, Microsoft, and CoreWeave to establish large-scale “AI factories” by 2026.
The rollout, outlined three months after Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a joint initiative at London Tech Week, is aimed at supporting the U.K.’s “sovereign AI” ambitions. The projects will deploy up to 120,000 of Nvidia’s Blackwell Ultra GPUs in local data centers and involve an estimated £11 billion in investment, according to company statements.
Infrastructure and investment plan
Nscale, an AI infrastructure provider spun off from cryptocurrency miner Arkon Energy in 2024, confirmed it will install 60,000 GPUs in U.K. data centers by 2026 as part of the agreement. Globally, the company plans to deploy around 300,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell GPUs across facilities in the U.S., Portugal, and Norway.
The U.K. program also includes Stargate U.K., a supercomputing facility where OpenAI will run advanced models such as GPT-5. Nvidia said the infrastructure will provide local computing power for research, biotech, and public sector initiatives.
“Sovereign AI infrastructure is key to national resilience, economic growth and strategic autonomy,” said Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale.
Government and corporate context
Starmer said the projects demonstrate progress toward the government’s national AI strategy:
“These announcements mark a decisive step toward the U.K. becoming a world leader in AI — meaning more jobs, more investment, and improvements in public services.”
The U.K. push is part of a broader global expansion. In London, Microsoft and Nscale plan to build the country’s most powerful supercomputer, expected to use 24,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell Ultra GPUs to support Microsoft Azure cloud services. CoreWeave also announced a data center in Scotland to run GPU-powered workloads using renewable energy.
Separately, BlackRock said it will invest up to £500 million in partnership with Digital Gravity Partners to modernize U.K. data centers to Nvidia-ready specifications, preparing infrastructure for accelerated AI adoption.
Broader technology ecosystem
Nvidia is also linking its AI infrastructure to the U.K.’s growing quantum computing ecosystem, with collaborations involving the University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London, and startups such as Orca Computing. These projects will integrate Nvidia GPUs with quantum processors via the company’s CUDA-Q platform.
Beyond quantum, Nvidia is partnering with techUK and training provider QA to scale AI workforce training via Nvidia’s Deep Learning Institute programs. This is in line with the U.K. government’s plan to upskill workers for jobs in robotics, research, and public services.
Market backdrop and risks
Nvidia’s U.K. expansion comes as the company’s global market valuation exceeded $4 trillion in July 2025, overtaking tech peers Apple and Microsoft. Analysts attribute the milestone to outsized confidence in AI-related demand.
However, risks remain. Projects of this scale rely on complex transatlantic regulatory cooperation, energy-intensive data centers, and consistent supply of GPUs, which has been a bottleneck for global AI rollouts.
“There is clear momentum in AI infrastructure, but execution will be critical — timelines, energy sourcing, and regional regulatory alignment are all potential hurdles,” said Matthew Bryson, senior semiconductor analyst at Wedbush Securities.
Bottom line
The combined efforts of Nvidia, Nscale, Microsoft, and industry partners represent the largest AI infrastructure deployment in U.K. history, with billions committed to sovereign computing capacity. If delivered on schedule, the initiatives could give the U.K. a central role in European AI development, while raising important questions about energy consumption, workforce training, and regulatory strategy in the age of accelerated computing.
Matvii Diadkov
Disclaimer: All materials on this site are for informational purposes only. None of the material should be interpreted as investment advice. Please note that despite the nature of much of the material created and hosted on this website, HODL FM is not a financial reference resource, and the opinions of authors and other contributors are their own and should not be taken as financial advice. If you require advice. HODL FM strongly recommends contacting a qualified industry professional.
