A new AI Growth Zone in the North East is set to bring more than 5,000 jobs and up to £30 billion of investment in an attempt to position the region as one of Europe’s leading hubs for AI and data centre infrastructure.
The zone will span sites in Blyth and Cobalt Park near Newcastle and will support the rollout of AI across sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, energy and finance, while building long-term career pathways through training, apprenticeships and university partnerships.
Blackstone has already committed £10bn to the Blyth data centre campus, with up to £20bn in additional investment expected from future partners.
In another regional boost, UK firm Nscale is working with US companies OpenAI and NVIDIA on Stargate UK, a new sovereign AI infrastructure platform.
The first phase will see Sam Altman’s tech giant deploy up to 8,000 GPUs at Cobalt Park early next year, with capacity to scale to 31,000.
“This is great news for the North East and the people who live there,” said Technology Secretary Liz Kendall.
“This investment will create thousands of high-quality jobs, boost skills and inspire the creation of new firms.
“The North East’s industrial legacy is evolving into a future of innovation – unlocking a potential £30bn and powering communities with the skills and careers to lead the UK’s next industrial revolution.”
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness added: “Today’s announcement of an AI Growth Zone places the North East at the forefront of the next technology revolution and will lead to billions of pounds of new investment in our region, thousands of better jobs and new opportunities for local people.
“I want kids in school here today to see their place in an AI-driven future.”
The zone is also set to allow universities to expand training in AI, data science, cloud infrastructure and data-centre engineering, while supporting businesses moving into the area.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang described it as a “historic chapter in US–UK technology collaboration” at the “Big Bang of the AI era”, while Nscale CEO Josh Payne said the project would deliver the most powerful supercomputer in the country.
Altman added that Stargate UK would “accelerate scientific breakthroughs, improve productivity, and drive economic growth”.