1. A supercomputer center to be built this year still has a scaffolding yard in Lawton
The Guardian visits a site in Essex supposed To host “one of the most powerful AI computing centers ever built” by Enscale. The government and Enscale say that this supercomputer will be ready by the end of this year.
The site is still being used as a scaffolding yard by a different company. While Enscale said more than a year ago that he had already purchased the site, land records show he is not registered as the owner of the land. Enscale has little chance of completing construction of a “top-tier” supercomputer there this year.
2. The UK government hasn’t checked the numbers when it comes to large-scale AI investment
The Guardian asked the government about major investments worth billions of pounds, including Enscale and Corview. The government said that these figures came from the companies themselves, and that it had no mechanism to audit them. He could not say what these investments included: equipment, capital or something else.
The government did not respond when asked about the contract to build a supercomputer in Lawton. Instead, it said the entire related investment, $2.5 billion, did not involve any formal contract but was intended to be a capital injection.
3. Some ‘investments’ are not money, but computer chips transferred to the UK
Both Enscale and CoreWave have indicated that a large portion of their major investments will take the form of Nvidia chips, which they will purchase and place inside datacenters in the UK. From there, these chips will be rented to users in the UK, including US tech companies.
So, for example, Enscale’s $2.5 billion “investment” in the UK could largely mean that Enscale plans to buy a large number of chips from Nvidia – chips made in Taiwan by an American company – these will be placed in a datacenter in the UK, and from there they will be rented to Microsoft.
This does not mean that $2.5 billion will be invested in the British economy.
As another example, in 2024, CoreWeave and the government announced a £1 billion investment that, as reported, will bring two new datacenters to the UK. CoreWeave said this would create jobs.
No new datacenters were built. Instead, CoreWeave put Nvidia chips into existing UK datacenters. It said these chips and related logistics and personnel costs make up the bulk of its investment. This was an “industry-standard” approach, it said.
4. Lanarkshire AI hub will require as much power as a nuclear reactor
This January, the government said CoreWeave was going to partner with Scottish firm DataVita to create an “AI growth zone” with 500MW and 1GW of private string renewable energy. CoreWeave’s investment here is £1.5 billion, which, again, is not a figure that has been verified by the government.
1GW of renewable energy is the output of an entire nuclear reactor or Scotland the biggest Offshore windfarm, covering an area of ​​approximately 1,100 square miles. Datavita has said it will be private wire energy; That means it will bypass the public grid.
Datavita has no plans on file to build a nuclear reactor or giant windfarm in Lanarkshire.
5. Major companies have bad records, but they can still make money
CoreWeave was one of the biggest tech IPOs last year – its share price nearly quadrupled in the months after it hit the market, amid rising AI rhetoric. Now, however, the company is being sued by shareholders who allege it hid key information about delays in its datacenter buildout, causing the stock to decline when the information came out.
CoreWeave said it was aware of the lawsuit, and said the claims were baseless and that it would vigorously defend itself. Whether the allegations are true or not, some of CoreWeave’s early, pre-IPO investors may have made a fortune in the months after going public.
Meanwhile, Nscale allotted a number of its shares at a price of 1p in October. Today, these shares are worth many times more after the company raised $2 billion at a valuation of $14.6 billion. An analyst who examined the figures told the Guardian: “That’s like a 350,000% return on investment.” Shareholders could make money when Enscale makes a public offering – how much depends on the AI ​​hype at the time.
