A major 拢10bn investment which will create thousands of jobs in the North East has been announced by the Prime Minister in New York today.
The deal with US investment company Blackstone, facilitated by the Office for Investment, will create the biggest AI data centre in Europe, boosting the UK鈥檚 world leading capabilities in the AI sector and driving growth in the local community.
Over 4,000 jobs will be created as a result, including 1,200 roles dedicated to the construction of the site in Blyth, Northumberland.
Construction on the site is expected to begin next year, with the data centres set to store the vast amount of data needed to power AI, and to store the information generated by AI systems.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:聽聽鈥淭he number one mission of my government is to grow our economy, so that hard-working British people reap the benefits 鈥� and more foreign investment is a crucial part of that plan.
鈥淣ew investment such as the one we鈥檝e announced with Blackstone today is a huge vote of confidence in the UK and it proves that Britain is back as a major player on the global stage and we鈥檙e open for business.鈥�
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The local community in Blyth – which suffered as a result of the failure of BritishVolt, which planned to build an electric battery gigafactory (pictured, main image) – will also directly benefit from the investment, with Blackstone confirming it will invest 拢110m into a fund 鈥� supporting further skills training and transport infrastructure in the area.
The UK is already home to the highest number of data centres in Western Europe.
Jon Gray, President and chief operating officer of Blackstone, said:聽鈥淭he UK is a top investment market for Blackstone because of its powerful combination of talent and innovation along with a highly transparent legal system.
鈥淲e are making significant commitments to building social housing, facilitating the energy transition, growing life sciences companies and developing critical infrastructure needed to fuel the digital economy.
鈥淭his includes a projected 拢10bn investment to build one of聽Europe鈥檚 largest hyperscale data centres supporting 4,000 jobs. Blackstone is committed to Britain.鈥�
The news comes ahead of the UK鈥檚 International Investment Summit in October, which is set to bring together hundreds of leading CEOs.