OpenAI to launch Stargate UK with up to 31,000 GPUs

Ken Metral

17 Sep 2025 — 2 min read

Credit: OpenAI, Inc.

OpenAI announced plans to bring its Stargate compute capacity to the United Kingdom, marking a significant expansion of the company’s global infrastructure footprint.

The generative AI leader will initially take space in multiple Nscale data centers, with an exploratory deployment of up to 8,000 GPUs and the potential to scale to 31,000 GPUs.

Building Sovereign AI Capacity

OpenAI said the UK deployment will provide sovereign compute capacity, enabling its models to run on local hardware for specialist use cases, including public services, national security, and regulated industries such as finance.

“The UK has been a longstanding pioneer of AI, and is now home to world-class researchers, millions of ChatGPT users, and a government that quickly recognized the potential of this technology,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. “Stargate UK builds on this foundation to help accelerate scientific breakthroughs, improve productivity, and drive economic growth.”

Nscale Expansion

To support OpenAI’s contract, Nscale confirmed it will significantly expand its UK capacity, with GPUs distributed across several sites. One of the flagship hubs will be a new “AI Growth Zone” in Cobalt Park, North East England.

The deal comes just days after Nscale announced a separate agreement with Microsoft to deploy 23,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell Ultra GPUs at its upcoming Loughton, Essex, supercomputer campus. In addition, the company plans to roll out 4,600 Nvidia GB300 GPUs for Nvidia’s DGX Cloud and DGX Lepton Marketplace.

Nscale is also advancing its European Stargate project in Norway with partner Aker, which is expected to feature around 100,000 GPUs.

Broader Wave of UK Investments

OpenAI’s announcement comes during U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK and follows a surge of data center investments in the country. Recent commitments include:

A £5 billion ($6.9 billion) investment by Google.
A $678 million BlackRock-backed venture.
A new Vantage Data Centers facility.
A £1.5 billion ($2 billion) investment by CoreWeave in UK AI infrastructure.

Positioning the UK for AI Leadership

With major U.S. tech firms pouring resources into British data center capacity, the UK is positioning itself as a key node in the global AI race. The combination of sovereign compute capacity, industry partnerships, and government backing could make the UK a critical hub for both AI research and commercial deployment.

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