Modular AI data centre approved at Liberty Steel plant in Newport, South Wales. Part of Era4's 30-location UK sovereign AI platform.
Era4 (formerly Carbon3.ai) has received planning approval from Newport City Council to develop a modular AI data centre within an existing building at the Liberty Steel plant in Newport, South Wales. The facility will repurpose an existing structure, with the only physical change being replacement cladding on the building's exterior walls. The data centre modules will be housed on the first floor, with car parking underneath, in part due to proximity to the River Usk.
The Newport facility is part of Era4's broader strategy to deploy a sovereign AI platform across the UK, with an ambition to eventually reach more than 30 locations and 100,000 GPUs. The company has committed to deploying Nvidia Blackwell Ultra AI infrastructure with HPE direct liquid-cooled servers across its network. Eight full-time positions will be created at the Newport site.
The development is located within the South Wales AI Growth Zone, a UK government-designated area designed to accelerate data centre and AI infrastructure investment through business incentives and priority grid connections. Newport has become an increasingly attractive destination for digital infrastructure development, with several major operators including Vantage and Microsoft already present in the area.
