--- title: OpenAI never visited its Stargate UK site, Guardian finds description: A Guardian investigation reveals OpenAI apparently never visited a key site earmarked for its Stargate UK data centre project before the initiative was... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/openai-never-visited-its-stargate-uk-site-guardian-finds-awsl1jeuo twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: OpenAI never visited its Stargate UK site, Guardian finds | daily.dev og:description: A Guardian investigation reveals OpenAI apparently never visited a key site earmarked for its Stargate UK data centre project before the initiative was... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/openai-never-visited-its-stargate-uk-site-guardian-finds-awsl1jeuo og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/AwSl1Jeuo.png og:image:alt: OpenAI never visited its Stargate UK site, Guardian finds og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # OpenAI never visited its Stargate UK site, Guardian finds **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A Guardian investigation reveals OpenAI apparently never visited a key site earmarked for its Stargate UK data centre project before the initiative was publicly announced. The project, a partnership between OpenAI, Nvidia, and cloud provider Nscale, was unveiled in September 2025 with promises of up to 8,000 Nvidia GPUs deployed in north-east England by Q1 2026. A March 2026 investigation found the designated supercomputer site in Loughton, Essex was still a functioning scaffolding yard with no construction underway, and land records showed no evidence of Nscale's claimed ownership. The UK government had issued a press release describing a £1.9 billion investment contract with Nscale that had never been signed, and admitted it was not auditing these commitments. OpenAI formally paused Stargate UK in April 2026, citing electricity costs roughly four times higher than in the US and Nordic countries, plus unresolved AI copyright regulation. Meanwhile, Nscale redirected €695 million to a Microsoft data centre campus in Portugal. The episode highlights a structural weakness in how the UK government counts AI investment — tallying pledges at announcement without verification, producing what the Guardian calls 'phantom investments.' ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [OpenAI pauses Stargate UK as energy costs and copyright rules block the path](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-pauses-stargate-uk-as-energy-costs-and-copyright-rules-block-the-path-wzwm0rbfx) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The UAE is splitting up its $30bn AI data centre after Iran named it as a target](https://daily.dev/posts/the-uae-is-splitting-up-its-30bn-ai-data-centre-after-iran-named-it-as-a-target-pf5oxiw5w) · The Next Web · 2 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#nvidia](https://daily.dev/tags/nvidia), [#ai-infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-infrastructure) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-never-visited-its-stargate-uk-site-guardian-finds-awsl1jeuo) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"OpenAI never visited its Stargate UK site, Guardian finds","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-never-visited-its-stargate-uk-site-guardian-finds-awsl1jeuo","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-never-visited-its-stargate-uk-site-guardian-finds-awsl1jeuo"},"datePublished":"2026-07-04T14:43:58.697Z","dateModified":"2026-07-04T14:44:20.748Z","description":"A Guardian investigation reveals OpenAI apparently never visited a key site earmarked for its Stargate UK data centre project before the initiative was...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2e21354f82f89c7d5ec2625b83dc7adc?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2e21354f82f89c7d5ec2625b83dc7adc?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-never-visited-its-stargate-uk-site-guardian-finds-awsl1jeuo","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"openai,nvidia,ai-infrastructure","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"OpenAI never visited its Stargate UK site, Guardian finds"}]} ```