At Cambois in Northumberland, the former Blyth Power Station site is being prepared for one of the largest proposed data-centre campuses in Britain.

Further south, Cobalt Park in North Tyneside is planned to host new AI computing capacity.

Together, the two sites anchor the North East AI Growth Zone, a UK Government programme intended to bring large-scale artificial intelligence infrastructure to the region while supporting AI skills, local technology companies and wider business adoption.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has forecast more than 5,000 jobs and up to £30bn of private investment across the zone. QTS alone says its proposed Cambois campus could involve investment of up to £10bn.

The Growth Zone also has a wider economic-development aim. The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority wants regional businesses to adopt AI, local technology companies to grow, young people to acquire relevant skills and more of the economic value created by the technology to remain in the region.

At the authority’s cabinet meeting on 22 September 2026, North East mayor Kim McGuinness said: “It also has to be about us being a region that creates the technology, not just adopts it.”

That ambition is now moving from policy into delivery. The authority has approved a £5m programme for AI skills, business adoption and technology companies, while construction activity is progressing at Cambois and questions over power and future computing capacity remain at Cobalt Park.

This guide tracks what the North East AI Growth Zone includes, what has actually happened and what still has to be delivered.

The North East AI Growth Zone is a UK Government designation created in September 2025 to accelerate large-scale artificial intelligence infrastructure in the region.

It is centred on Cambois in Northumberland and Cobalt Park in North Tyneside, where major data-centre and computing projects are planned.

Growth Zone status is intended to speed up major AI infrastructure projects by coordinating planning, electricity-grid connections and other infrastructure support.

The UK Government has created a Connections Accelerator Service for strategic projects and says qualifying schemes may receive priority where grid capacity is available. The designation does not itself grant planning permission or guarantee a power connection.

The scale is substantial. AI Growth Zones are aimed at sites capable of supporting at least 500 megawatts of power by 2030, enough for very large computing campuses. That makes electricity supply, water, land and planning central to the North East programme.

The North East AI Growth Zone also covers AI skills, business adoption and support for local technology companies.

The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority’s £5m local-benefits programme is intended to connect investment in computing capacity with businesses, schools and people across the region.

The North East was building a data and AI base before AI Growth Zones became national policy.

In 2017, the UK Government and Newcastle University announced £30m for the National Innovation Centre for Data, designed to connect university expertise with companies and public bodies.

The region already had university research, a growing digital sector and commercial data-centre infrastructure.

The biggest infrastructure project also predates the Growth Zone. In April 2024, Northumberland County Council agreed arrangements to facilitate QTS’s proposed data-centre campus at Cambois, on the former Blyth Power Station site.

AI Growth Zones emerged as national policy in January 2025, when the UK Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan proposed designated areas where planning, power and infrastructure support could be concentrated around large computing projects. Cambois received outline planning permission two months later.

The North East was formally designated as an AI Growth Zone in September 2025, with Cambois and Cobalt Park as its main infrastructure locations.

A regional taskforce brought together businesses, universities and skills providers, while OpenAI, Nscale and NVIDIA announced plans for Stargate UK capacity at Cobalt Park.

The regional programme expanded in 2026, with an AI skills package announced in May and the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority approving a £5m programme for skills, business adoption and AI companies in September.

Growth Zone status did not create the North East’s AI economy from scratch. It brought existing infrastructure proposals, research capability and business activity into a broader regional programme intended to accelerate investment and spread its benefits more widely.

The Growth Zone’s economic case depends partly on how widely businesses across the North East adopt AI.

Manufacturers could use it to improve production and maintenance. Energy companies could analyse complex systems and demand. Healthcare providers could use it to support diagnosis, administration and research. Financial and professional-services firms could automate routine work and analyse information more quickly.

Office for National Statistics data shows how quickly business adoption is increasing nationally. The proportion of UK businesses with at least 10 employees reporting some use of AI rose from about 12% in late 2023 to 35% by June 2026.

Businesses using AI still tend to use relatively few AI technologies. Among those already using AI, the average number in use increased from about 1.4 to 1.6 over the same period.

The figures are national rather than North East-specific, but they suggest that much of the economic impact still lies ahead.

That emphasis on adoption also echoes the view of Sage chief executive Steve Hare, who has questioned the UK’s focus on building data centres and argued that its stronger opportunity lies in developing AI applications.

The region already has AI and data capability to build on. Newcastle’s National Innovation Centre for Data (NICD) has worked with organisations on data science and AI since 2018.

Ortus Economic Research, in analysis commissioned by Newcastle University, estimates that NICD projects retained £116m in cumulative net additional gross value added in the North East between 2018 and 2026.

The estimate covers its wider data-science work, including AI, rather than AI alone.

National Innovation Centre for Data director Professor Paul Watson says its model is “designed to leave organisations with the skills and capacity to continue developing and applying AI and data science” after individual projects end.

That capability is central to the Growth Zone’s economic case. The aim is to use the new computing infrastructure to help regional companies, researchers and start-ups develop products, adopt new technology and grow.

The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority’s prospectus sets targets including an annual productivity increase of up to 1.3% in North East industries, AI and technology learning for 80,000 young people and a doubling of home-grown technology firms and products.

Those remain targets rather than measured outcomes. They also show that the Growth Zone is intended to support wider economic development, not only infrastructure.

For more on the companies, research institutions and technologies already operating in the region, see Review North’s guide to the North East AI landscape.

QTS Data Centers’ proposed Cambois campus is being developed on the former Blyth Power Station site in Northumberland. Northumberland County Council granted outline planning permission in March 2025 for a campus of up to 540,000 square metres.

QTS says the full development could involve investment of up to £10bn. That is the projected value of the completed campus, not money already spent.

Work has begun on the site. QTS started enabling works in October 2025 and the council approved the first two data-centre buildings that December.

By August 2026, specialist contractor Keller said crews were installing foundations for the two buildings, including thousands of stone columns and piles.

QTS says construction of the first data-centre building is due to begin during 2026.

The company forecasts about 1,200 construction jobs, 400 operational roles and up to 2,700 indirect jobs if the campus is completed. These remain projections rather than jobs already created.

The development is also linked to a Northumberland growth fund worth up to £110m, agreed with QTS and Blackstone to support long-term investment and employment along the Northumberland Line corridor.

Council documents link payments into the fund to milestones including planning, power, leasing and site development. The council has not published how much has been released so far.

Cobalt Park in North Tyneside is the Growth Zone’s second main infrastructure location. It already hosts data-centre operations and was named in 2025 as a site for Stargate UK, a proposed AI-computing programme involving OpenAI, Nscale and NVIDIA.

OpenAI later paused its Stargate UK plans in April 2026. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said Cobalt Park was in discussions with alternative customers for the planned computing capacity, but did not say whether another customer had been secured or how much of the original proposal would proceed.

That leaves Cobalt in a different position from Cambois. The site remains part of the North East AI Growth Zone, but the future scale and use of its proposed new computing capacity are less certain.

Power is another constraint. At the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority cabinet meeting on 22 September 2026, North Tyneside said a separate data-centre proposal at Cobalt Park had been delayed because sufficient electricity capacity was not available.

The council did not identify that project, so it should not be assumed to be the same proposal as Stargate UK. Future expansion at Cobalt will depend on attracting customers and securing enough power for additional data-centre capacity.

The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority approved a £5m local-benefits programme in September 2026 to support AI skills, business adoption and technology companies across the region.

The money is divided across four areas:

The programme is planned to run over four financial years, although procurement has yet to begin.

The authority expects the UK Government to provide a £5m local-benefits grant, but that money has not yet been transferred. In the meantime, it is using Integrated Settlement funding to get the programme under way and expects to recover the cost retrospectively.

The largest share, £2m, is intended to support digital and AI companies with growth potential. A further £1.25m is aimed at helping businesses in other sectors adopt AI in their operations.

Sage executive vice-president Jonathan Cowan said the Growth Zone offered “a real opportunity to support small businesses and strengthen the region’s role on the global AI stage”.

A separate skills package was announced in May 2026, with the UK Government committing £1.5m through TechFirst and McGuinness a further £750,000.

That package included a target for 30,000 primary-school pupils to receive early AI and digital-skills training. The regional prospectus also sets a wider ambition for 80,000 young people to benefit from AI and technology learning by 2029.

The £5m programme also includes a schools strand alongside the earlier skills package. The authority has not yet explained how participation will be counted across them or whether the targets will be reported separately.

Local authorities could also benefit financially from future data-centre development. UK Government policy proposes allowing councils to retain growth in business rates from eligible AI Growth Zone sites for 25 years from April 2027.

The government estimates that a completed data-centre site could generate around £5m to £10m a year in additional local-authority revenue. But the precise position at Cambois remains to be established because part of the area is already covered by the North East Investment Zone.

The UK Government has forecast more than 5,000 jobs and up to £30bn in private investment across the North East AI Growth Zone.

Those figures describe what could be delivered over time, not what has already happened.

There is no published zone-wide total for investment spent, jobs created or people employed through the programme so far.

The clearest project-level forecasts come from Cambois, where QTS says its proposed campus could involve up to £10bn of investment and support about 1,200 construction jobs, 400 permanent operational roles and up to 2,700 indirect jobs.

Work is under way at Cambois, but the employment figures remain forecasts.

Enabling works began in October 2025 and foundation work for the first two buildings was taking place by August 2026. QTS has not published a total for jobs filled or investment spent to date.

Across the wider Growth Zone, most published figures still describe commitments, forecasts or projects in their early stages of delivery:

Electricity supply is already constraining data-centre development in parts of the North East, as demand from proposed projects runs up against limits on available grid capacity.

That matters because large data centres require substantial, reliable electricity connections before they can operate.

At the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority cabinet meeting on 22 September 2026, Northumberland’s representative said the region did not have enough power capacity to meet demand from new projects.

North Tyneside also said a separate data-centre proposal at Cobalt Park had been delayed because sufficient electricity was not available.

The UK Government has identified grid connections as a major barrier to AI Growth Zones nationally. Its April 2026 delivery plan proposes additional support for strategic projects, including faster connections and a possible electricity-cost discount for eligible schemes from April 2027.

The pressure on grid capacity extends beyond data centres. Manufacturers, housing developments and other businesses are competing for the same infrastructure.

Water and land place further constraints on large data-centre development. Large data-centre campuses can require substantial sites and cooling infrastructure, while the land they occupy cannot be used for other forms of development.

The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority is therefore developing a regional Data Centre Strategy to assess future proposals based on the power, water and land they require and the economic benefits they could bring.

That work should help the region decide how much data-centre development it can accommodate and what level of local economic benefit should be expected from projects using constrained infrastructure.

Several parts of the Growth Zone are now moving towards delivery, making progress easier to measure.

One of the next developments will be the £5m local-benefits programme. Once contracts are awarded, businesses, schools and technology companies should be able to see what support is available, who is eligible and when the different programmes open.

At Cambois, the next major milestone is construction of the first data-centre buildings. Enabling and foundation works are already under way, with QTS saying construction of the first building is due to begin during 2026.

At Cobalt Park, the next steps depend on whether new customers take up the computing capacity previously associated with Stargate UK and whether enough electricity can be secured for further development.

The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority is also preparing a regional Data Centre Strategy, informed by an Energy Review due to conclude in February 2027. That work should give councils and developers a clearer view of which projects the region can support and what economic benefits will be expected in return.

Over the next year, progress should become easier to measure as projects move into construction, businesses and schools begin using the new programmes, jobs are filled and more evidence emerges about how much of the economic value created by AI is staying in the region.