{"id":165568,"date":"2026-01-29T10:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/?p=165568"},"modified":"2026-01-29T10:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:18:09","slug":"datavita-north-lanarkshire-site-named-uk-ai-growth-zone-in-8-2-billion-investment-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/2026\/01\/29\/datavita-north-lanarkshire-site-named-uk-ai-growth-zone-in-8-2-billion-investment-boost\/","title":{"rendered":"DataVita North Lanarkshire site named UK AI Growth Zone in \u00a38.2 billion investment boost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>DataVita\u2019s North Lanarkshire development has been designated a UK AI Growth Zone, unlocking \u00a38.2 billion in private investment and creating thousands of jobs while delivering more than half a billion pounds in community funding.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DataVita\u2019s North Lanarkshire site has been named a UK AI Growth Zone, unlocking \u00a38.2 billion of private investment for the region, marking one of the largest technology commitments in Scottish history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project brings together three integrated components: 500MW of AI-ready data centre capacity, more than 1GW of private wire renewable energy infrastructure and Innovation Parks designed to attract next-generation industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 3,400 jobs will be created in the coming years, ranging from immediate construction roles through to permanent positions in data centre operations, renewable energy and AI-related fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DataVita is building 500MW of hyperscale data centre capacity optimised for AI workloads. The facilities use closed-loop cooling systems with near-zero water consumption and will operate at a power usage effectiveness of 1.15, among the most efficient in the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 1GW of renewable energy, including wind, solar and battery storage, will be developed on private wire connections directly to the data centres. The system will be grid positive, exporting surplus clean energy to the national grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Power costs will be sub-10p per kWh, with carbon intensity under 5 gCO\u2082e per kWh, which is 97 per cent lower than the London grid average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Purpose-built Innovation Parks will provide the physical infrastructure for next-generation industries. The development includes laboratory space, robotics research facilities and advanced manufacturing units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These facilities are intended to attract companies and researchers that require proximity to AI compute at scale. The objective is to create a thriving ecosystem in which the anchor investment draws new businesses and hundreds of additional jobs to the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the centre of the project is a commitment to ensure benefits are shared locally. A Community Fund will deliver more than \u00a3543 million to North Lanarkshire over the next 15 years, supporting skills and training programmes, local charities and community initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fund will be governed by an independent board with local representation, ensuring the community determines how the money is spent. Additional commitments include 50 apprenticeships and an AI Venture Fund backing Scottish start-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The AI Growth Zone is positioned as one of the most sustainable AI infrastructure developments globally. The system will be grid positive, with renewable sources generating more energy than the data centres consume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Carbon intensity will be 97% lower than other major UK data centre hubs and water waste will be almost zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Danny Quinn, Managing Director, DataVita, said: &#8220;Scotland has everything AI needs \u2013 the talent, the green energy and now the infrastructure. But this goes beyond the physical build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We are creating innovation parks, new energy infrastructure and attracting inward investment from some of the world\u2019s leading technology companies. This is a real opportunity for North Lanarkshire and we want to make sure local people share in it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DataVita\u2019s North Lanarkshire development has been designated a UK AI Growth Zone, unlocking \u00a38.2 billion in private investment and creating thousands of jobs while delivering more than half a billion pounds in community funding. DataVita\u2019s North Lanarkshire site has been named a UK AI Growth Zone, unlocking \u00a38.2 billion of private investment for the region, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":165569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,18793,93],"tags":[19517,24222,23111,24217,76,10024,24220,24218,400,24219,24221],"class_list":["post-165568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-centres","category-europe","category-top-stories","tag-ai-infrastructure","tag-ai-investment-uk","tag-community-fund","tag-datavita","tag-digital-transformation","tag-hyperscale-data-centres","tag-innovation-parks","tag-north-lanarkshire","tag-renewable-energy","tag-scotland-data-centres","tag-uk-ai-growth-zone"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165570,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165568\/revisions\/165570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}