Invisible datacentres and capricious chips: is UK’s AI bubble about to burst?

Datacentre investment boom is one of the biggest infrastructure gambles of this era, and Britain may be uniquely exposed

Stargate was to be the world's biggest AI investment: a $500bn infrastructure project to secure American leadership in AI". Never shy of hyperbole, its key backer, the ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, promised massive economic benefit for the entire world" with facilities to help people use AI to elevate humanity".

Now, OpenAI appears to be dropping out of a part of the deal - the expansion of a flagship datacentre stretching across a swathe of land in Abilene, Texas, which has become one of the most visible manifestations of a frenzy of investment in the chips and power plants required to build and run AI. There has been a breakdown in negotiations over project financing, as well as the timeline of when the expanded capacity might come online.