{"id":285634,"date":"2026-07-04T08:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/openais-apparent-failure-to-visit-key-site-raises-questions-over-stargate-uk-project-ai-artificial-intelligence\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T08:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:20:09","slug":"openais-apparent-failure-to-visit-key-site-raises-questions-over-stargate-uk-project-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/openais-apparent-failure-to-visit-key-site-raises-questions-over-stargate-uk-project-ai-artificial-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI\u2019s apparent failure to visit key site raises questions over Stargate UK project | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"

OpenAI\u2019s apparent failure to visit key site raises questions over Stargate UK project | AI (artificial intelligence)<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jul\/04\/openai-apparent-failure-visit-key-site-questions-stargate-uk-project<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-07-04 08:01:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n

It was to be the biggest undertaking in Britain for OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Stargate UK \u2013 a multibillion-pound UK datacentre project \u2013 <\/strong>would represent \u201ca major step forward in the US-UK technology partnership\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the plans were paused in April, with an OpenAI spokesperson citing concerns over regulation and high energy costs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now the Guardian can reveal that OpenAI does not appear to have visited one of Stargate UK\u2019s key sites \u2013 and that \u00a320bn of the \u201cpotential\u201d \u00a330bn in investment touted by the UK government appears to have been totally hypothetical.<\/p>\n

The findings raise questions about one of the most-hyped UK AI developments, and suggest a centrepiece of US-UK AI cooperation was in fact little more than a press release.<\/p>\n

It follows a Guardian investigation in March, which revealed many of the deals to \u201cmainline AI into the veins\u201d of the British economy were \u201cphantom investments\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sources with knowledge of the process to set up Stargate UK suggested the government had approached the UK firm Nscale and OpenAI shortly before Donald Trump\u2019s visit to the UK last year, asking them to agree to develop the Stargate UK site in Cobalt Park, a business park in North Tyneside.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey needed a big announcement,\u201d said one.<\/p>\n

Stargate UK was announced last year amid a flurry of high-gloss US-UK tech deals that accompanied Trump\u2019s September visit to London. It echoed the Stargate AI project in the US, in which OpenAI promised to invest $500bn to \u201csecure American leadership in AI\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Donald Trump and Keir Starmer at a press conference at Chequers during the US president\u2019s state visit in September. <\/span> Photograph: Leon Neal\/Reuters<\/p>\n

In comparison, Stargate UK\u2019s ambitions were modest. OpenAI was to work with Nscale, which is building a supercomputer in Essex, and Nvidia, a maker of AI chips, to develop infrastructure at sites across Britain.<\/p>\n

The most prominent of these sites was the planned datacentre at Cobalt Park, which the government…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OpenAI\u2019s apparent failure to visit key site raises questions over Stargate UK project | AI…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":285635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/8ce3e77293ca3b52c3b171d33c8dbf92a78f562f\/124_0_3413_2731\/master\/3413.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=4a33e63e2a05a1d6397d1f9628363fb1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285636,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285634\/revisions\/285636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}