Microsoft pulls out of Nscale's Essex AI data centre project
Microsoft has pulled out of a planned agreement to be the anchor tenant at Nscale's data centre site in Loughton, Essex. Reports attribute the exit to power delays, saying the site may not get a grid connection until the 2030s. Microsoft and Anthropic reportedly make up about 85% of Nscale's contract base, so the loss is a setback for one of Britain's flagship AI infrastructure projects.
UK angle: Affects a flagship UK AI data centre project in Essex and the UK's compute capacity ambitions.
