The UK government has designated a site in South Wales as an AI Growth Zone, an area where private companies are encouraged to build data centers.

The zones, now totalling four, promise faster planning permission and access to power, two major roadblocks to building in the UK. Earlier this month, the government announced a Growth Zone in North Wales at the Anglesey Freeport.

Colo giant Vantage Data Centers and cloud firm Microsoft are among those set to invest £10 billion ($13.1bn) in an area that includes the former Ford Bridgend Engine Plant.

Vantage Data Centers bought the factory in Bridgend, west of Welsh capital Cardiff, in 2024 and announced plans for a data center. In January, consultation documents suggested plans for 10 buildings and three substations developed over a 10-15 year period, with construction beginning in 2026.

The UK Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) added that the Growth Zone would be made up of several sites stretching along the M4 corridor from the cities of Newport to Bridgend, with over 1GW of capacity operational by the early 2030s.

DSIT is also looking for an investor to back the development of the South Wales site.

That facility appears to be re-announced with the AI Growth Zone pronouncements, with no additional information. Microsoft is also name-checked in the Grow Zone designation, and is a known major customer of Vantage's existing nearby Newport data center.

Vantage acquired that site, east of Cardiff, when it bought Next Generation Data in 2020. Newport is similarly part of the new AI Growth Zone.

The company is also building a data center campus in the Ffordd Bro Tathan business park in St. Athan, a village just west of Cardiff and south of Bridgend.

It is not clear if the AI Growth Zone announcement involves any new data center developments beyond existing projects. The UK government said that it expects the Zone to see £10 billion ($13bn) of investment and at least 5,000 jobs.

Alongside the specific South Wales designation, the government said that it would spend up to £100 million ($131m) on AI hardware from UK startups. "Our goal is to see British chips deployed alongside established vendors," the government said.

Venture capitalist James Wise will chair the Sovereign AI Unit, with "almost" £500 million ($654m) in investment to fund local AI startups.

In addition, the previously announced plan to offer up to £250 million ($327m) in compute to British researchers to train AI models has officially launched as of today.