Plans announced for UK’s first renewable-powered sovereign cloud
October 24, 2025
Data center developer Argyll Data Development has signed a deal with AI infrastructure firm SambaNova to create the UK’s first sovereign AI cloud powered entirely by renewable energy.
Sited in the Killellan AI Growth Zone, a 184-acre green digital campus on Scotland’s Cowal Peninsula, the facility will use wind, wave, and solar energy generated on-site.
It will deploy SambaNova’s air-cooled SN40L systems, in which each rack draws roughly one-tenth the power of traditional GPU systems, eliminating the need for liquid cooling, the company said.
“Together with SambaNova and our strategic partners, we’re building a sovereign AI infrastructure powered by renewable energy, demonstrating that sustainability and scale can go hand in hand. Our goal isn’t just to make AI greener, but to make it competitive, compliant and cost-effective,” said Peter Griffiths, executive chairman at Argyll.
“This project gives UK enterprises the ability to innovate responsibly, securely and within our own borders, in full alignment with national AI ambitions.”
The first phase of the build will have 100 to 600 megawatts of capacity, scaling to over two gigawatts when the facility is complete. A private-wire renewable network and battery storage will enable ‘island-mode’ operation, with plans for future grid integration in progress.
Waste heat from the data center campus will be used to support vertical farming, aquaculture and local district heating, using a closed-loop, circular design.
“Argyll is a blueprint for scaling AI responsibly. By pairing renewable power with high-performance, energy-efficient computing, it shows what sustainable AI infrastructure can achieve,” said Rodrigo Liang, CEO and co-founder of SambaNova.
“With SambaNova’s chips-to-model platform, we’re enabling large-model inference with maximum performance per watt, while helping enterprises and governments maintain full control over their data and energy footprint.”
Argyll said the project is expected to enable £15 billion in total investment, create more than 2,000 construction jobs a year along with 1,200 permanent positions, and contribute £734 million in annual Gross Value Added (GVA) to the Scottish economy.
This week, SambaNova also announced a similar deal in Australia, launching SCX, the country’s first ASIC-based sovereign AI cloud powered entirely by renewable energy.
In Germany, meanwhile, Infercom is launching the country’s first Inference platform, providing fully EU-compliant, GDPR-safe AI infrastructure for startups, enterprises and government agencies, powered by SambaNova.
“Infercom’s new Inference-as-a-Service platform, built on SambaNova, directly addresses the growing demand from European startups, enterprises, and public sector organizations for sovereign, energy-efficient AI infrastructure,” said Liang.
“Europe needs sovereign, enterprise-grade AI infrastructure that delivers on regulatory, security, and performance expectations – and we’re proud to help make that a reality.”
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