AI Pathfinder, a new data center developer, says it plans to invest up to £18.4 billion ($24.86bn) in UK digital infrastructure, with new facilities in England and Scotland.

The firm claims it will spend £3.4bn ($4.6bn) on a data center in Northamptonshire, with the first phase of the development coming online later this year.

It has also committed to investing up to £15bn ($20.2bn) in a data center at the i3 industrial park in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Though AI Pathfinder’s announcement does not reveal the precise location of its Northamptonshire data center, it says it will be up and running by December 2025, and that the first phase of installation includes an “AI Factory” from Dell and Nvidia, capable of handling complex AI workloads. DCD has contacted the firm for more details.

For Scotland, AI Pathfinder said it plans “an initial investment from 2026 that will see the start of operations at its North Ayrshire site with significant planned GPU deployment.”

“This 1GW site is expected to scale into one of the largest AI infrastructure hubs in Europe, with the future potential to expand to 1.5GW,” a company statement added.

The firm says it intends to use the facilities to offer AI services directly to clients in the private and public sectors, rather than renting them to hyperscale clients. Whether this will involve developing its own platform or working with smaller cloud providers is not clear.

Martin Bellamy, chairman of AI Pathfinder, said: “We’ve been tracking the inflection point where slow or non-adoption of AI becomes an existential risk for government, the private sector, and public services – and that point is now in sight. Sovereign capability is becoming not just strategic, but essential.

“Our UK-based AI-as-a-Service platform will allow government, businesses, and public services to innovate at the speed of hyperscalers, with the security and data privacy of a sovereign solution. AI Pathfinder’s mission to provide the infrastructure to deliver sovereign AI-as-a-Service is a critical part of ensuring the UK is at the forefront of the AI-powered global economy.”

Though not stated on its website, AI Pathfinder appears to be a subsidiary of Salamanca Group, a property investor that claims to have secured £14bn ($18.9bn) in funding for its projects, which include Agratas Gigafactory, a plant for electric vehicle batteries that is being planned in Somerset.

The two companies share a London address, and Bellamy is also chairman and CEO of Salamanca Group.

How the new data centers will be funded, and over what time period the full amount of money will be invested, has not been disclosed.

Caroline Yap, AI Pathfinder’s chief technology officer, said: “AI-as-a-Service is the best way to leverage and utilise this rapid pace of innovation. Whether deployed in the public or private sector, this is the time of adoption and transformation.”

News of the developments was announced last week during US President Donald Trump's visit to the UK. Also confirmed during the visit were a £5bn ($6.9bn) Google deal, a $678m BlackRock venture, and a new Vantage facility. CoreWeave has also said it is investing £1.5bn ($2bn) in UK AI data center capacity and operations, while OpenAI and Nvidia announced Stargate UK, in partnership with Nscale.