OpenAI and SoftBank’s $500bn data centre project Stargate is considering a future investment in the UK, according to reports, as it looks to build out global infrastructure to support homegrown AI projects.
Following the UK’s recent push for AI investment, including pairing back planning regulation for data centres and bolstering developers’ access to energy, the country has become a top choice for overseas expansion by Stargate, the Financial Times reported, citing three people close to the matter.
Announced by US president Donald Trump in January, Stargate is a huge infrastructure project designed to boost US AI capabilities, spearheaded by AI and investment giants OpenAI and SoftBank.
While the project will initially be based in the US, investment in the UK, as well as Germany and France, is being considered as part of future global expansion plans, according to the FT.
OpenAI and SoftBank have been approached for comment by Sifted. They told the FT in a joint statement that Stargate “remains fully committed to investing up to $500bn over the next four years to build AI infrastructure in the US”.
The project is currently raising an initial $100bn, of which SoftBank is expected to contribute tens of billions of dollars in debt and equity.
Big Tech’s European expansion
Governments in Europe have been racing to attract AI investment in 2025.
The UK announced its grand AI plan in January — which involved making it easier for big AI projects to be built in the country — and France announced more than €100bn in AI infrastructure investment in February.
Reports of the UK’s potential involvement in Stargate come after US vice president JD Vance said that the two countries had a “good chance” of agreeing a trade deal earlier this week.
Big Tech companies have been increasingly setting up shop in Europe, looking to entice the region’s top AI talent.
“AI talent has never been in higher demand, and US Big Tech expanding into Europe has only intensified competition,” Dan Bathurst, chief product officer at AI data centre startup Nscale, told Sifted in March.
Anthropic announced it was launching a major European hiring push earlier this month and OpenAI said it would open a new office in Munich in February — causing anxiety among startups in Germany, who feared it would deepen the talent shortage.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/openai-softbank-uk-investment-stargate/
