TLDRs;
- OpenAI and Nvidia plan multibillion-dollar UK data center investments, led by CEOs Sam Altman and Jensen Huang.
- The deal partners with Nscale Global Holdings, whose Essex facility could host 45,000 Nvidia GB200 superchips.
- UK aims to triple AI data center capacity by 2030, backed by public and private funding.
- The expansion strengthens Britain’s role in global AI competition as infrastructure spending nears $200 billion annually by 2028.
OpenAI and Nvidia are preparing to make a bold bet on the United Kingdom’s role in the global AI race.
According to people familiar with the matter, the two technology giants are set to announce multibillion-dollar investments in data centers across the country during a high-profile business delegation visit next week.
The announcement is expected to coincide with U.S. President Donald Trump’s official trip to the UK, amplifying the spotlight on this strategic deal.
The initiative, spearheaded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, will be executed in partnership with London-based Nscale Global Holdings Ltd. For OpenAI, this marks one of its largest overseas investments to date, signaling a broader European expansion strategy as the company navigates increasingly strict AI regulatory frameworks in the region.
UK Emerges as AI Infrastructure Magnet
Nscale, a company founded in May 2024, had already outlined a $2.5 billion plan to construct next-generation data centers in the UK.
Its flagship facility in Loughton, Essex, is designed to host up to 45,000 Nvidia GB200 superchips, customized to power advanced AI training and inference workloads. The collaboration with OpenAI and Nvidia could significantly accelerate that timeline and scale, transforming the UK into a critical hub for AI infrastructure.
The UK government has made clear that it wants to triple national AI data center capacity to 6 gigawatts by 2030. To that end, it has committed up to £2 billion in public funding while welcoming more than £44 billion in private sector investments. A central part of this push has been the creation of “AI Growth Zones,” where planning approvals for new data centers are fast-tracked to attract foreign investors.
Global Competition for AI Power
The investments from OpenAI and Nvidia are part of an unprecedented wave of AI infrastructure spending worldwide. In 2025 alone, more than $1 trillion has been committed across eight major projects globally.
Industry analysts say AI infrastructure spending surged 97% in the first half of 2024, hitting $47.4 billion, and could swell to $200 billion annually by 2028.
Compared with OpenAI’s megaprojects like the 4.5-gigawatt Stargate initiative in the United States and a 5-gigawatt buildout in the United Arab Emirates, the UK expansion may appear modest. Still, the billions being deployed demonstrate the country’s growing importance in the global AI supply chain and the companies’ willingness to spread their operations across multiple jurisdictions.
Strategic Implications for OpenAI and Nvidia
For OpenAI, the UK expansion serves not only as an operational base but also as a hedge against regulatory uncertainty in the United States and the European Union. Establishing a foothold in Britain allows the company to align with a government that has declared AI infrastructure a national priority.
Nvidia, on the other hand, cements its dominance as the backbone of the AI revolution. Its chips remain the most sought-after hardware for training large language models and running generative AI workloads. By anchoring its technology in British facilities, Nvidia positions itself at the heart of a rapidly scaling ecosystem that blends government support with private capital.
