OpenAI's UK Investment Unraveled: £20B of 'Stargate UK' Apparently Never Left the Drawing Board

Summary

Stargate UK, touted as a multibillion-pound datacentre partnership between OpenAI, Nscale, and Nvidia, was hailed as a centerpiece of US-UK AI cooperation during President Trump's visit to the UK last September. The project was designated an "AI growth zone" and promised up to £30 billion in investment. However, the plans were paused in April, with OpenAI citing regulatory concerns and high energy costs.

A Guardian investigation now reveals that OpenAI appears never to have visited the key Cobalt Park site in North Tyneside where the primary datacentre was planned. Freedom of Information requests show that only Nvidia visited local authorities—five months after Trump's visit—while neither OpenAI nor Nscale met with the North East combined authority overseeing the project. This discovery raises serious questions about the project's substance and commitment level.

The investigation further exposes that £20 billion of the £30 billion investment touted by UK ministers appears to have been entirely hypothetical. Of the £30 billion figure, only Blackstone's £10 billion commitment was firm, relating to a separate datacentre project in the area. Sources familiar with the process describe the arrangement as "effectively just a government PR stunt" hastily arranged to create announcements around Trump's state visit. The revelation echoes previous Guardian reporting on phantom AI investments in the UK economy.

• Sources indicate the government rushed to create Stargate UK as a headline announcement for Trump's September 2025 state visit, and it was never a fully developed initiative
• The project pause in April, attributed by OpenAI to regulatory and energy cost concerns, may reflect the project's lack of substantive groundwork