Labour Party leader Keir Starmer is making headlines with the announcement of a £10 billion AI datacentre in north-east England, creating 4,000 jobs in the region. The project will be funded by private equity firm Blackstone, led by Trump supporter Stephen Schwarzman, and has been hailed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a vote of confidence in the UK.
The datacentre will be built in Blyth, Northumberland, on the site of the failed Britishvolt battery startup, which was acquired by Blackstone earlier this year. The facility is expected to store the data necessary for powering AI systems and will begin construction next year. Blackstone has committed to investing £110m in a fund to support skills training and transport infrastructure in the area.
The announcement comes as Johnson travels to New York to drum up foreign investment in the UK, where he will meet with chief executives and business leaders. Starmer, who has made investment in the UK a priority since taking office, will also be meeting with Blackstone’s chief operating officer, Jon Gray, who supports Biden.
In addition to the datacentre project, Starmer is working to reset EU-UK relations, with plans to visit Brussels next week. The government is also focused on an international investment summit in October and is consulting on plans to raise taxes on private equity firms, a move that has been met with opposition from the industry. Labor’s business day at the party conference saw discussions on industrial strategy, taxation, and workers’ rights.
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