Scotland's AI Growth Zone gets a wee £300M power-up

Datacenter operator DataVita has secured £300 million ($406 million) to expand its campus in Scotland's Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, while Dell is moving into the area – albeit only into a regional office.

The AI Growth Zone, unveiled earlier this year, centers on DataVita's server farm campus in Airdrie.

The operator has secured financing to expand its existing facility and build another nearby, promising hundreds of construction jobs and 100 permanent roles.

The £300 million debt facility comes from a lending syndicate comprising ING, ABN AMRO, Santander, the Scottish National Investment Bank, and Siemens Financial Services.

The UK's National Wealth Fund is backing it with a £202 million guarantee.

DataVita says the financing will expand its existing DV1 facility and fund construction of a new one, DV3.

For anyone wondering about the missing number, DV2 sits beneath an office in Glasgow.

Once expanded, DV1 will provide 40 MW of capacity, as will DV3.

CoreWeave has already leased the capacity of both bit barns for 15 years.

The AI cloud operator provides infrastructure to several leading model developers.

DataVita did not wait for the financing to land.

Work on the DV1 expansion began last December, and construction of DV3 followed in April.

Work is expected to be complete by the end of this year for the extension to DV1 and summer 2027 for DV3.

The firm claims the two developments will support about 600 construction jobs and create roughly 100 permanent, highly skilled roles once operational.