LONDON, UK, Apr 24, 2026 – BT and Nscale plan to deploy sovereign AI data centers in the UK using NVIDIA full-stack infrastructure. The systems will run AI workloads within the UK to meet data residency and regulatory requirements.
Nscale plans to build up to 14 megawatts of AI data center capacity across three BT locations in the UK. BT will provide site infrastructure and network connectivity for these facilities to support AI workload demand.
BT Business sovereign platform provides new AI processing for private and public sector. Organizations can:
- Run AI models within the UK to meet regulatory, data residency, and security requirements
- Scale AI compute capacity as needed without upfront infrastructure deployment
- Operate AI workloads while maintaining system control and operational continuity
The AI data center infrastructure supports applications including analysis of sensitive data in healthcare and research, along with AI use in public services and sectors such as energy, finance, and security.
The work aligns with the UK Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, which focuses on AI investment and domestic data center infrastructure. BT, NVIDIA, and Nscale are members of the UK Sovereign AI Industry Forum, which works with the government on infrastructure, skills development, and startup support.
AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said: “To unlock the full benefits of AI, Britain needs more of the infrastructure that powers it. This investment in new AI data centers will give businesses and public services the tools they need to use AI at scale here in the UK. Building more of this on British shores strengthens our position in a highly competitive global market, supports high value jobs, and ensures Britain can work with the best technologies in the world while growing our own capability at home.”
Jon James, CEO, BT Business, said: “The development of AI and data center infrastructure is key to unlocking economic growth in the UK, and is only possible with the best, most trusted networks at the foundation. Digital sovereignty enables UK organizations to adopt the world’s leading technologies, while maintaining resilience and control in a rapidly changing world. Our collaboration with Nscale reflects BT’s unique position as the digital backbone of the UK – the only provider with the scale, capabilities and experience to enable the nation’s sovereign ambitions.”
Tom Burke, chief revenue officer, Nscale, said: “Partnering with BT is a major milestone in supporting the UK’s AI ambitions and its position in the global AI economy. Telecommunications have a critical role to play in this shift – you can’t deliver AI at scale without resilient, high-capacity networks as the backbone. Together, BT’s nationwide digital infrastructure and Nscale’s modular, NVIDIA-powered AI data center deployment will give organizations access to world-class compute, with the assurance that their data and operations can stay local.”
Anthony Hills, director UKI, NVIDIA, said: “Telecommunications is at the core of sovereign AI, because secure, high-capacity networks are essential to unlocking the UK’s accelerated computing potential. By combining BT’s trusted nationwide infrastructure with Nscale’s AI data centers powered by NVIDIA, this collaboration expands access to sovereign compute under UK control, enabling telcos and their customers to innovate with AI while keeping sensitive data and operations in the country.”
Source: Nscale
About Nscale
Nscale Ltd., founded in 2024, is a UK-based technology company specializing in AI-optimized cloud infrastructure and high-performance computing (HPC) solutions. Headquartered in London, with data centers in Glomfjord, Norway, Nscale offers a vertically integrated platform encompassing public and private cloud services, serverless inference, GPU clusters, and AI development tools. Its infrastructure is powered by renewable energy, emphasizing sustainability. Nscale serves various industries, including education, finance, government, healthcare, legal, manufacturing, software, and telecommunications, providing scalable solutions for AI model training, inference, and development. In January 2025, the company secured $155 million in Series A funding led by Sandton Capital Partners, supporting its expansion across Europe and North America.
About BT
BT Group is a telecommunications company founded in 1846 with origins in the Electric Telegraph Company. It provides fixed-line telephony, mobile services, broadband internet, fiber networks, and digital television. The company also delivers IT services, cloud connectivity, network security, and enterprise communications systems. BT serves consumer, business, and government customers across telecommunications and digital infrastructure markets. Its operations span about 180 countries, supporting global communication and network services. BT Group is headquartered in London, UK. It operates divisions including Consumer, Business, and Openreach for network infrastructure. Customers include households, enterprises, public sector organizations, and telecom operators using wholesale network access. BT serves more than 30 million customers globally. The company employs about 92,000 people worldwide.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA, founded in 1993 and headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, designs and manufactures graphics processing units, systems on chips, networking hardware, and AI intelligence software such as CUDA. Its products serve industries including gaming, data centers, autonomous vehicles, professional visualization, robotics, health care, and energy. The company introduced the GPU in 1999 and later expanded into accelerated computing and AI infrastructure. In gaming, its GPUs support high-performance rendering, while in AI and high-performance computing, its systems provide the infrastructure for training and deploying large-scale models. NVIDIA also develops tools for robotics and autonomous driving.