Billions that only exist on paper
The promise of transforming the United Kingdom into a global Artificial Intelligence powerhouse has grabbed massive headlines in recent months. Governments from different parties have paraded billion-dollar figures, announced new data centers, talked about thousands of jobs, and even the construction of a cutting-edge supercomputer. Prime Minister Keir Starmer pulled no punches with his enthusiasm, publicly declaring his intention to inject AI into the veins of the British economy, projecting a potential impact of £47 billion per year. But when the cameras turn off and the official press releases fade from the news cycle, reality seems to tell a completely different story.
A thorough investigation conducted by The Guardian has brought to light findings that are sparking an intense debate about transparency in technology investments. According to the reporting, a significant portion of the financial commitments announced since 2024 may amount to nothing more than numbers written in press releases — with no formal contracts, no concrete timelines, and no real guarantees of execution. Public policy and tech sector experts have already started calling this phenomenon ghost investments, a term that sums up the situation pretty well: grandiose announcements that create the illusion of progress but in practice have yet to materialize into tangible infrastructure or actual job creation.
Among the most striking findings is the case of supposedly new data centers that actually already existed before the official announcements. In other words, companies were repackaging already operational infrastructure as if it were a brand-new investment. On top of that, a plot of land that was supposed to house a state-of-the-art supercomputer is still functioning as a scaffolding storage yard in Loughton, Essex, with no sign of construction or significant activity. The absence of signed contracts between the government and the companies involved in these projects only deepens the distrust.
The key players behind the billion-dollar announcements
The British government’s AI plans revolve around two companies backed by tech giant Nvidia, valued at around $4 trillion: London-based NScale and American company CoreWeave. Both operate in the cloud computing infrastructure space focused on Artificial Intelligence workloads, providing the processing power that language models and other AI applications need to run.
In CoreWeave’s case, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak celebrated one of the first AI investments in the country back in 2024 — a £1 billion commitment that would supposedly help cement the UK’s position as a world leader in AI. The official press release mentioned that this investment would bring two new data centers to British soil. Six months later, the company announced that both data centers were operational, one in London’s Docklands and another in Crawley, near Gatwick Airport.
The problem? Planning records indicate that CoreWeave did not build any new data center at either location during that period. What actually happened was that the company became a client of two already existing data centers — one built in 2002 and the other in 2015 — that were already leasing space to several other companies, including Google and Fujitsu. CoreWeave rented space in those facilities and installed Nvidia chips it had already purchased. At its core, the investment boils down to relocating computer chips manufactured in Taiwan by an American company into buildings that already existed in the UK.
When questioned by The Guardian, CoreWeave argued that bringing new computing capacity online by installing chips at existing sites is a standard industry approach. The company stated that the combination of chip installation, associated leasing and energy costs, the opening of its office in Southwark (which it called its European headquarters), and staffing costs represented the entirety of the £1 billion investment. The company declined to say how many jobs were created.
Receive the best innovation content in your email.
All the news, tips, trends, and resources you're looking for, delivered to your inbox.
By subscribing to the newsletter, you agree to receive communications from Método Viral. We are committed to always protecting and respecting your privacy.
The supercomputer that is still a scaffolding yard
NScale’s case is even more striking. In January 2025, the government announced that the company would build a supercomputer on the outskirts of Loughton, in east London, in a project described as the UK’s largest sovereign AI data center. This project would be part of a $2.5 billion investment that NScale was supposedly making in the country. The government’s official statement claimed the company had signed a contract to complete the data center by 2026.
However, when Guardian reporters visited the site in February 2025, the plot in an industrial park on the outskirts of Loughton was still being used as a scaffolding storage yard by a London company. NScale only submitted a building permit application in late February, after the newspaper started asking questions. Land registry records indicate that NScale has not yet been registered as the owner of the site. The company itself could not confirm whether it owned the land or provide a date when any purchase might have taken place.
When asked about the terms of the contract that had supposedly been signed, the British government did not respond directly. Instead, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology stated that NScale’s entire $2.5 billion investment was not a formal contract but rather an intention to commit capital, and that the amount may include equipment and capital financing. In other words, the government itself acknowledged that the commitment announced with so much fanfare has no binding contractual backing.
Recently, NScale announced the hiring of heavyweight figures for its board: former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. The company also announced a $2 billion fundraising round, pushing its valuation to an impressive $14.6 billion. Despite this robust financial activity on paper, NScale’s accounts for 2025 are overdue and still show no concrete investment commitment in the UK.
The Stargate UK project and the growth zone in Scotland
The plans don’t stop there. NScale, along with Microsoft and OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT), is expected to establish Stargate UK, described as an essential project to develop the UK’s own AI facilities across multiple locations in the country. When questioned, the government admitted that this project is also part of NScale’s same $2.5 billion investment — without providing a detailed breakdown of the figures and stating it does not have a mechanism to review them.
A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology was blunt, saying the government will continue to work closely with NScale to secure this investment in the UK, but is not playing an active role in auditing these commitments. That statement is particularly revealing: the government promotes the investments as political wins while simultaneously admitting it lacks the ability — or the willingness — to verify whether they are actually happening. 😬
On CoreWeave’s side, the company is expected to support an AI growth zone in Lanarkshire, Scotland, which the government says will be completed in four years and will raise CoreWeave’s total investment in British infrastructure to £2.5 billion. The project is described as a central pillar of the government’s industrial strategy, with the promise of creating 3,400 construction jobs. DataVita, CoreWeave’s partner in the venture, promised more than 1GW of renewable energy on site — equivalent to the output of a nuclear power plant.
However, the current reality of the Lanarkshire site is far more modest. The location currently houses a data center with just 24MW of electricity — less than 3% of the promised renewable supply. A planning application to expand to 40MW has been approved, but other applications, including for a larger site, cannot be submitted until April, according to the local council’s planning portal.
Dr. Kat Jones, director of the Scottish countryside protection organization APRS, who has been researching the growth of hyperscale data centers in Scotland, was emphatic in her assessment. She pointed out that a hyperscale data center of that magnitude would have the energy demand of half a million homes, equivalent to one-eighth of Scotland’s entire electricity demand. On the plans for 1GW of renewable energy on site, her conclusion was straightforward: these are completely unrealistic promises. When asked about the 3,400 jobs, CoreWeave stated that any employment projections shared regarding these UK data center efforts originated from the government and DataVita, not from CoreWeave itself. DataVita did not respond to requests for comment.
The government’s position and the industry’s defense
When confronted with the investigation’s findings, the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology refused to answer detailed questions but said it rejected these claims. In a statement, the government said the AI sector has attracted more than £100 billion in private investment since the current government took office, with the sector growing 23 times faster than the economy as a whole over the past year.
However, the government itself acknowledged significant limitations in its oversight. In NScale’s case, it admitted there was no formal contract in place for the $2.5 billion investment, despite a press release stating one had been signed. In CoreWeave’s case, it said the announced figures were produced by the company itself, not by the government. And regarding the Lanarkshire growth zone, it said the details of the commitment are the responsibility of DataVita and CoreWeave.
This approach of outsourcing the responsibility for verifying investments to the very companies announcing them raises serious governance questions. It is as if the government were saying: we put out the numbers, but if they turn out not to be real, that is not on us.
Why transparency matters more than ever
The problem goes far beyond a public relations issue. When governments announce billion-dollar investments in Artificial Intelligence, it directly influences market decisions, attracts foreign investors, moves currency markets, and affects confidence across the entire economic chain. Cities and regions that believe they are about to receive new data centers start planning local infrastructure expansion, workforce hiring, and service adaptation. If those investments never materialize, the domino effect can be devastating for communities that bet everything on empty promises.
Cecilia Rikap, professor of economics at University College London, was one of the most outspoken voices analyzing the situation. According to her, big tech companies artificially inflate job creation and the economic impact of data centers to please governments like the British one, which are desperate to claim they are growing the economy. Rikap also noted that it is very common in the industry to frame equipment purchases or company acquisitions as new investment. The rules, she said, are very flexible and help these companies make big claims that a government like Starmer’s, desperate for good news, can use to its advantage.
The lack of transparency also creates fertile ground for so-called AI washing, when companies and governments deliberately exaggerate their involvement with Artificial Intelligence to appear more innovative and attract positive attention from the media and financial markets. This phenomenon had already been observed in the private sector, but now it seems to have spread to the government level. The risk is twofold: serious investors may lose confidence in legitimate announcements because they cannot tell real commitments apart from inflated promises, while public oversight and planning resources end up being directed toward projects that exist only in speeches.
A problem that crosses borders
And here is the detail that makes this discussion even more relevant: the phenomenon of ghost investments in Artificial Intelligence is not exclusive to Britain. According to recent surveys, more than £500 billion in AI investments have been promised around the world in 2025 alone. These are figures announced by governments in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, often accompanied by symbolic photos, formal handshakes, and press conferences packed with optimistic projections. But when analysts and journalists try to trace those funds back to real projects — data centers under construction, teams hired, equipment purchased — the trail frequently disappears.
The same dynamic observed in the UK seems to be repeating on a global scale, raising serious concerns about the true size of the AI boom everyone is celebrating. The global technology economy increasingly runs on expectations and future projections. That means data center and AI infrastructure investment announcements move billions in stock markets, influence industrial policies of entire nations, and shape strategic decisions of multinational corporations. When a significant share of those announcements turns out to be inflated or lacking substance, the risk of a sharp correction increases considerably.
Without independent audit mechanisms, without accessible public contracts, and without measurable goals tied to clear deadlines, any government can announce any number knowing that by the time reality catches up, the political cycle will have moved on and no one will be held accountable. The Guardian’s investigation into the British case serves as an important wake-up call for every country jumping into the global AI race. The credibility of Artificial Intelligence as an economic engine depends directly on the ability to separate real commitments from empty promises — and that separation only happens with genuine transparency and rigorous oversight.
Meanwhile, in Loughton, the scaffolding yard is still standing. And the supercomputer that was supposed to be there by the end of 2026 remains, for now, just another line in a press release 🔍
