Hope Turns to Fear in Scottish Village Chosen for AI Data Center

A small village in Scotland was promised thousands of jobs and millions of pounds when the government picked it for a huge AI data center. Newarthill sits near Glasgow in an area called Lanarkshire. The project is called an AI growth zone, and it was supposed to bring big changes to the area. But many locals now fear they may lose their land and see their home values drop.

Late last year, workers from a company called Oakes Energy Services knocked on doors around the village. They told residents about plans for a solar farm and offered free solar panels, tree planting, or cash for their homes. Resident Diane Davidson said it felt like people were being told to stay quiet and they would be rewarded. She pointed out that none of the offers were put in writing.

A few months later, the UK government chose Lanarkshire as a key site for its national AI plan. A US company called CoreWeave and a Scottish firm called DataVita will build the project. The government promised 3,400 high-value jobs and up to £543 million for the local community. Many people were excited — at first.

AI data centers are big buildings packed with powerful computer chips. These chips do the calculations needed to run AI programs. Tech companies around the world are spending enormous sums of money to build these centers. They believe AI will reshape the global economy and want to get ahead of the trend.

Davidson said that at first the community was not alarmed by the data center itself. But then people realized it would need a massive amount of energy — and energy needs a massive amount of land. The more locals looked into the plans, the bigger and more complicated the project seemed. 'It was just growing arms and legs the more we looked into it,' Davidson said.

A Guardian newspaper investigation found that the public announcements about the AI growth zone may not tell the whole story. The government and DataVita said the site would run on renewable energy built on-site. But when the Guardian asked questions, they admitted the site would actually connect to Britain's main power grid. How much renewable energy will actually be built on or near the site is still unclear.

DataVita says it wants 1 gigawatt of power from energy parks near its data centers. Experts estimate that would require about 44 square kilometers of land. Right now, DataVita appears to control less than a tenth of that amount. Local people worry the company will try to expand onto their land to make up the gap.

The £543 million community fund does not currently exist — it is meant to come from DataVita's future profits, if they ever arrive. A Scottish charity called APRS investigated the claim of 3,400 jobs and found the number came from estimates made for a different site in England. APRS concluded the real number of long-term jobs could be a hundred times smaller. Most of the work would be short-term construction jobs, not permanent careers.

North Lanarkshire has a tough history. Its towns were once built around coal mines and steel mills, but those industries are long gone. Today, the area has some of the worst health outcomes in western Europe. Local historian Ann Glen said her community had just won a decade-long fight to stop a luxury housing project on nearby land — and now they face a new battle. 'Now we're back here, and instead of this EuroPark, we have a data center,' she said.

At a community meeting in April, locals asked energy company representatives a simple question: who is your customer? The representatives refused to answer. Scottish Parliament member Meghan Gallacher said she believes the companies have not been fully honest with residents. DataVita said all plans go through a public planning process and that it welcomes community input, but many locals remain unconvinced and angry.