When the UK Government unveiled plans for an £8.2bn (US$11bn) AI data centre campus in Lanarkshire earlier this year, it was presented as a flagship project that would strengthen Britain's AI ambitions while showcasing Scotland's renewable energy potential.
Now, an investigation by The Guardian has cast serious doubt on whether the development, led by US cloud computing specialist CoreWeave and Scottish operator DataVita, will be able to meet its scheduled completion date of 2030.
The report argues that while debate around large-scale AI data centres has largely focused on access to clean electricity and grid connections, a more fundamental obstacle is emerging further up the supply chain: the shortage of critical electrical equipment needed to connect new demand.
The Lanarkshire development is set to become one of the UK's largest AI infrastructure projects, with plans for up to 1GW of power capacity.
For context, that is broadly equivalent to the output of a conventional nuclear reactor, which speaks to AI’s enormous appetite for energy.
