North East England AI Growth Zone to Bring £30bn Investment and 5,000 Jobs as NVIDIA and OpenAI Back New UK AI Compute Hub

North East AI Growth Zone: Billions in investment, 5,000 jobs, and a new national capability

The UK and US have agreed a new tech partnership that places North East England at the centre of the country's AI ambitions. A newly designated AI Growth Zone spanning sites in Blyth and Cobalt Park near Newcastle is expected to enable more than 5,000 skilled jobs and up to £30 billion in private investment.

This move positions the region as one of Europe's largest data centre hubs, with direct benefits for public services, local industry, and long-term careers in AI, data, and infrastructure.

What's been announced

The AI Growth Zone will accelerate AI deployment across the North East, backed by a major industry partnership: Nscale, OpenAI, and NVIDIA will establish "Stargate UK," a new AI infrastructure initiative. Phase one includes up to 8,000 GPUs available early next year, with scale-up potential to approximately 31,000 GPUs.

Blackstone has already committed £10 billion to the Blyth site, with a further £20 billion potential from future partners under the Growth Zone designation. The data centre footprint is expected to reach 1.1GW of capacity within six years.

Why the North East

• Access to the UK's largest supply of low-carbon and renewable energy
• Established and planned data centre campuses in Cobalt Park (Wallsend) and QTS Cambois (Blyth)
• Proximity to world-class universities and a strong regional tech ecosystem in advanced manufacturing, robotics, and space

Infrastructure and industry partners

Stargate UK will be based across multiple UK sites, including Cobalt Park within the Growth Zone. The partnership is intended to expand national AI infrastructure, supporting public service delivery and private sector adoption in line with the government's Plan for Change.

This announcement follows a new UK-US agreement to deepen cooperation and investment across AI, Quantum, and Nuclear technologies. Industry roles include:

• NVIDIA: AI infrastructure leadership (nvidia.com)
• OpenAI: model deployment at scale (openai.com)
• Nscale: UK-based data and compute delivery

Economic impact and timeline

• Jobs: 5,000+ across construction, data centre operations, data engineering, AI R&D, and AI safety
• Investment: Up to £30 billion (including £10 billion committed; £20 billion potential)
• Capacity: ~1.1GW data centre capacity within six years
• Rollout: Initial 8,000 GPUs available early next year; scalable to ~31,000

Implications for public services

The Growth Zone is expected to support faster adoption of AI in healthcare, fraud detection, benefits administration, local planning, and critical infrastructure operations. Researchers and startups will gain access to significant compute, enabling work on drug discovery, climate modelling, and safer systems.

For departments and agencies, this creates a clearer pathway to test AI with high-compute workloads while maintaining sovereignty, security, and compliance expectations.

Skills and talent pipeline

Local universities-Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland, and Northumbria-will place trained AI and data professionals within commuting distance of the Growth Zone. Training will expand in AI, data science, cloud, and data centre engineering, supported by the National Innovation Centre for Data's work on local AI curricula.

Expect demand for apprenticeships, mid-career pathways, and specialist certifications across operations, AI evaluation, safety assurance, and compliance.

What government teams should do next

• Workforce planning: Map roles that benefit from AI (analysts, caseworkers, inspectors, clinicians) and define required skills, certifications, and apprenticeship routes.
• Data readiness: Prioritise data quality, lineage, access controls, and retention policies to enable safe model training and evaluation.
• Procurement: Prepare flexible commercial routes for AI services, evaluation tooling, and model hosting on UK-sovereign infrastructure.
• Safety and assurance: Establish governance for testing, monitoring, red-teaming, and incident response; align with departmental risk registers.
• Energy and planning: Coordinate with local authorities on grid connections, planning, and sustainability commitments for new workloads.
• Local growth and skills: Partner with universities and FE colleges to scale practical training and placements linked to the Growth Zone.
• Public service pilots: Identify 2-3 high-impact use cases (e.g., clinical triage support, fraud analytics, permitting) with measurable outcomes.

Key facts at a glance

• Location: Blyth and Cobalt Park (North East England)
• Jobs: 5,000+ across the region
• Investment: Up to £30 billion
• Compute: 8,000 GPUs initial, growth to ~31,000
• Capacity: ~1.1GW within six years
• Universities: Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland, Northumbria
• Sectors affected: Manufacturing, healthcare, energy, finance

Where to develop skills

For rapid upskilling across AI, data, and automation by role, explore course paths here: AI courses by job. For a broader view of current options: Latest AI courses.

The North East AI Growth Zone is a practical route to grow UK capability, create skilled jobs, and modernise public services. Departments that prepare now-on data, procurement, skills, and assurance-will be first to realise value.