TL;DR
DataVita has raised £300m to expand its Airdrie data centre and build a second one inside the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, with the state carrying most of the lending risk. Dell Technologies is moving its Scottish team from Glasgow to the site. Ministers put the wider development at more than 3,400 jobs.
Who is actually lending
The financing is where this announcement differs from the usual investment headline. Of the £300m, £252.5m comes from ING, ABN AMRO and Santander — and the National Wealth Fund guarantees £202m of that, covering 80% of the tranche. The balance — put up by Siemens Financial Services, plus SNIB, Scotland’s own state investment bank — carries no guarantee.
That structure is the point rather than a footnote. The fund’s chief executive, Oliver Holbourn, said private money is hard to raise for infrastructure of this kind at this scale, and that the guarantee exists to give lenders the confidence to commit. Britain is not simply attracting capital to AI infrastructure; it is underwriting it.
The jobs number needs reading carefully
The 3,400 figure covers the wider development, and includes temporary construction roles alongside permanent ones. Ministers also cite a £543m community fund running over fifteen years, and the £8bn of private investment the zone was projected to draw when it was designated in January.
DataVita’s managing director, Danny Quinn, drew a line between his project and the sector’s announcement cycle: “work is well advanced on site, every megawatt is contracted, and the first facility completes this year”. For Dell, the move to Mercury House is a relocation within Scotland rather than new UK ground.
Looking forward
The same day brought tighter scrutiny, with Scottish ministers requiring councils to notify them of data centre applications above 50MW. DataVita’s existing Airdrie site runs at 12MW and falls outside it. Lanarkshire follows Newport, where the Welsh AI Growth Zone signed its first compute deal in August, and the pattern is now clear: the zones are producing named anchor tenants, and the state is taking the credit risk that gets them financed.