EDINBURGH: Datavita has secured £300mil (US$406mil) of financing from ING, ABN Amro, and other European banks as it bids to expand an existing data centre (DC) in Scotland and build another.
“The British government helped unlock the funding by guaranteeing 80% of the £252mil tranche provided by the two Dutch banks and Spain’s Santander,” the Business Department said yesterday.
The remainder of the package is provided on an uncovered basis by the Scottish National Investment Bank and Siemens Financial Services. The department also said computing giant Dell would be moving its Scottish headquarters to the site.
The investment marks a key sign of life for Britain’s so-called artificial intelligence (AI) growth zones under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham. His predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, made them a key pillar of the Labour government’s policy on AI.
The programme’s future had come into question when OpenAI announced in April that it was pulling back from Stargate UK, and then after Starmer’s departure.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds linked the growth zone policy to Burnham’s policy of promoting regional growth.
“This investment, and Dell’s decision to back talent in Lanarkshire, is proof our AI growth zones are already re-industrialising Britain,” said Reynolds. — Bloomberg
