Vantage and Nebius move first in South Wales AI Growth Zone deployment

AI cloud firm Nebius is leasing high-density capacity at Vantage Data Centers' Newport campus, marking the first commercial capacity commitment in the South Wales AI Growth Zone.

Under the agreement, Nebius will lease Nvidia-powered capacity at Nebius's CWL1 facility to support AI training, inference, agentic AI and enterprise AI workloads, and serving enterprises, researchers, start-ups and public sector organizations.

“This is an important milestone for South Wales and for the UK’s AI infrastructure ambitions,” said David Howson, president, EMEA, Vantage Data Centers.

“Nebius is scaling AI cloud infrastructure in the UK at a time when demand for domestic compute capacity continues to accelerate. Vantage’s Newport campus provides the scale, connectivity and operational excellence needed to support that growth, and we’re proud to help establish South Wales as a leading destination for AI investment.”

One of Europe’s largest data center campuses, Nebius's CWL1 site opened in 2010. It runs on 100% certified renewable energy, with its latest facilities designed to minimize water consumption through a closed-loop cooling system that recirculates water rather than evaporating it.

The facility also uses air-cooled chillers and free cooling when ambient conditions permit.

The increased capacity forms part of Nebius’ broader UK expansion and commitment to scale domestic AI compute capacity.

In June, the company announced around £1.7 billion of committed capacity build-out across four UK sites, including the delivery of more than 1GW of AI-ready capacity across Newport, Bridgend, and Bro Tathan.

“The UK is one of the places where AI is being built, deployed and adopted by startups, enterprises and the public sector,” said Gary Tierney, general manager for EMEA at Nebius.

“Vantage’s Newport campus gives us a strong foundation to expand access to NVIDIA-powered AI infrastructure in the UK and support customers building the next generation of AI applications.”

AI Growth Zones take shape

The buildout is based on Nvidia's latest full-stack, end-to-end DSX AI factory reference design, and supports the UK government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan.

South Wales was designated as one of the UK's UK AI Growth Zones in November last year. At the time, the government said it could create more than 5,000 new jobs for local communities.

It's also home to the UK’s largest cluster of semiconductor businesses.

The AI Growth Zone stretches along the M4 corridor from Newport to Bridgend has the potential to harness over 1GW by early 2030s. 

“Today’s announcement marks an important milestone for the South Wales AI Growth Zone and demonstrates Wales’ growing reputation as a strategic location for the infrastructure that will power the AI economy,” said Adam Price, Welsh cabinet minister for enterprise, connectivity and energy.

"Nebius and Vantage’s investment will help unlock new economic opportunities, support highly skilled jobs and reinforce Wales’ position as a leading destination for advanced digital investment."

The move by Nebius comes hot on the heels of AI Growth Zone announcements elsewhere across the UK this week. The Lanarkshire growth zone in Scotland, for example, secured £300 million in investment to ramp up data center development, with Dell Technologies pledging its support for the site.

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