The UK’s AI ambitions have hit a significant speed bump. OpenAI’s Stargate programme, the $500bn global data centre initiative announced with great fanfare last September, was supposed to bring roughly 8,000 Nvidia AI processors to Cobalt Park on Tyneside through a partnership with British operator Nscale. First quarter 2026 was the target. That date has come and gone without construction starting, and neither company will say when it might actually begin.
The delay caps a difficult period for a project that once seemed unstoppable. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, originally unveiled Stargate at a White House event in January 2025 alongside Donald Trump, then pledged to take it global with the UK as a flagship location. The British government welcomed the move enthusiastically, and OpenAI even brought in former Conservative chancellor George Osborne to lead international expansion efforts.
But the Tyneside problems are part of a much wider pattern. Stargate’s US rollout has moved slowly, with backer SoftBank yet to finalise terms. A Texas site expansion planned with Oracle was quietly dropped earlier this year. And the broader industry is facing the same reality — data centre promises are proving far easier to make than deliver.
Research from Sightline Climate suggests up to half of all major data centre projects are now running behind schedule. Planning hurdles and energy constraints are the main culprits. Nscale itself, valued at $15bn and counting Sir Nick Clegg as a board member, has delayed a separate development in Loughton, Essex.
Campaign groups have been quick to criticise the pace. Tom Hegarty from Foxglove, which has raised concerns about data centres’ environmental impact, described Stargate UK as little more than an eight-month-old press release.
A government spokesman said ministers remain committed to fostering conditions for AI investment and are continuing to work with OpenAI and other firms. Whether that reassurance will be enough remains to be seen.