DataVita secures £300m for Scottish data centres
Author: Joe Peck
DataVita, a UK data centre and cloud services provider, has secured approximately £300 million in debt financing to expand its existing data centre and also build a second facility in North Lanarkshire’s AI Growth Zone, supported by a £202 million guarantee from the National Wealth Fund.
The financing has been provided by ING, ABN AMRO, Santander, the Scottish National Investment Bank, and Siemens Financial Services through Siemens Bank.
The National Wealth Fund guarantee covers £202 million of a £252.5 million lending tranche provided by ING, ABN AMRO, and Santander. Financing from the Scottish National Investment Bank and Siemens Financial Services is not covered by the guarantee.
The investment will expand DataVita’s existing DV1 data centre and fund construction of DV3. Capacity at both facilities has been contracted to AI cloud provider CoreWeave under a 15-year lease agreement.
The two projects are expected to create around 600 construction jobs and approximately 100 permanent skilled roles once completed.
North Lanarkshire AI campus takes shape
The developments are intended to form the first stage of a larger planned data centre campus in North Lanarkshire, following the site’s designation as Scotland’s first AI Growth Zone earlier this year.
DataVita has operated in Scotland’s digital infrastructure sector for more than 10 years, providing data centre infrastructure, cloud services, and connectivity for customers including government bodies, local authorities, and universities.
The project is the National Wealth Fund’s first support for domestic compute capacity and is intended to contribute to the UK Government’s Compute Roadmap and Scotland’s five-year AI strategy.
Oliver Holbourn, CEO of the National Wealth Fund, says, “New compute capacity is key to unlocking the UK’s future, yet private finance can be difficult to secure for emerging infrastructure at this scale. The National Wealth Fund’s guarantee is helping address that gap, giving lenders the confidence to invest.”
Danny Quinn, Managing Director at DataVita, comments, “There is plenty of talk about AI infrastructure just now. This project is being delivered: work is well advanced on site, every megawatt is contracted, and the first facility completes this year.
“The UK needs its own AI capability, built here and run here, and we are grateful to the National Wealth Fund and our lenders for backing a project that is already delivering it.”
UK AI Minister Kanishka Narayan adds, “The countries that build the infrastructure behind this technology will be the ones that attract investment, create jobs, and help shape the industries of the future.”
The Scottish Government’s Economy Secretary Stephen Flynn suggests that the investment will contribute to more than 3,400 jobs and more than £8 billion in private investment associated with the North Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone.
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