OpenAI has suspended its planned Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure project in the United Kingdom, according to a report by CNBC confirmed by a company spokesperson. The company says it remains open to resuming the initiative if conditions improve, but has not provided a revised timeline. The pause marks a significant setback for AI infrastructure expansion in the country.
OpenAI first unveiled the Stargate UK project in mid-September 2025, alongside chipmaker Nvidia and infrastructure provider Nscale. The original plan called for deploying up to 8,000 GPUs starting in the first quarter of 2026, with the possibility of scaling to approximately 31,000 GPUs over time. Proposed sites included Cobalt Park in northeast England, located within a designated AI Growth Zone.
At the time of the announcement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman emphasized the strategic importance of computing infrastructure. “Compute infrastructure will be the basis for the economy of the future, and we will utilize what we’re building with Nvidia to both create new AI breakthroughs and empower people and businesses with them at scale,” Altman said. The project was intended to support local AI computing capacity across the country.
A central obstacle behind the suspension is the cost of industrial electricity in the UK, which averages around 24 pence per kilowatt-hour for medium-sized businesses. AI data centers consume substantially more power than standard industrial facilities, typically operating at between 50 and 100 megawatts on a continuous basis. At current rates, running a 100-megawatt data center could cost between roughly $125 million and $250 million annually.
The strain on the UK’s energy grid adds further complexity to the situation. More than 140 data center projects are already awaiting grid connections, with combined capacity requests exceeding 50 gigawatts. This backlog underscores the broader infrastructure challenges facing the country as demand for AI computing power grows rapidly. Regulatory uncertainty compounds these energy-related concerns.
The Stargate UK initiative had broader political context as well. It followed a memorandum of understanding signed between OpenAI and the UK government in July 2025, focused on integrating frontier AI systems into public services. The project also came in the wake of a US Stargate AI infrastructure initiative announced by the Trump administration in January 2025. Both agreements reflected growing governmental interest in securing domestic AI capacity.
OpenAI stated it has not abandoned the project entirely and is continuing to assess its viability. “We continue to explore Stargate UK and will move forward when the right conditions such as regulation and the cost of energy enable long-term infrastructure investment,” the company said in a statement to CNBC. No further public comments from Altman or other OpenAI executives have been issued regarding the project’s current status.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
