Nscale confirmed plans for a major UK expansion aimed at positioning the country as a key hub for sovereign AI infrastructure through partnerships with Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA. The goal is to deliver large-scale AI compute capacity, including what will become the UK’s largest AI supercomputer at Nscale’s Loughton AI Campus. The facility will launch in Q1 2027 with 23,040 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs, providing 50MW of capacity expandable to 90MW, and will underpin Microsoft Azure services nationwide.
In parallel, Nscale, NVIDIA, and OpenAI are launching Stargate UK, a sovereign AI infrastructure initiative designed to deploy OpenAI’s models locally. Stargate UK will begin operations in early 2026 with up to 8,000 NVIDIA GPUs and may scale to 31,000 GPUs. Sites will include Cobalt Park in the newly designated AI Growth Zone in North East England. Nscale will also allocate 4,600 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs to support NVIDIA DGX Cloud and the DGX Lepton Marketplace for AI developers.
Altogether, Nscale plans to deploy up to 58,640 NVIDIA GPUs in the UK as part of its broader commitment to roll out 300,000 GPUs globally. Leaders from government and industry emphasized the significance of the announcement, including UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
- Nscale’s AI Campus in Loughton: 50MW scalable to 90MW, 23,040 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs in Q1 2027
- Stargate UK: joint initiative with NVIDIA and OpenAI, up to 31,000 GPUs, sovereign AI workloads
- Cobalt Park site included in new UK AI Growth Zone
- 4,600 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs to support DGX Cloud and Lepton Marketplace
- Overall UK commitment: up to 58,640 GPUs, part of global 300,000 GPU deployment
“This historic commitment from Nscale shows how the UK can build the future of AI, together with our partners from the US. It’s only by building world-class AI infrastructure that we will stay competitive in the global race,” said Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale.
🌐 Analysis: Nscale’s UK expansion underscores the growing strategic priority of sovereign AI infrastructure, ensuring local access to advanced compute for research, industry, and government workloads. The Stargate UK project mirrors similar national AI infrastructure initiatives underway in Europe, Japan, and the Middle East. For Microsoft, this partnership secures additional Azure GPU capacity, while NVIDIA continues to anchor itself at the heart of global AI infrastructure deployments. OpenAI, through Stargate UK, strengthens its foothold in sovereign AI markets at a time when governments are demanding local control over AI models and data.
