Anchor Investments Turn Regions into AI Growth Zones

The UK is entering a new phase of international technology investment. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Trump yesterday confirmed GBP 150bn of private US investment into the UK as part of renewed UK-US trade talks. Against this backdrop, the North East of England has been announced as one of the first AI Growth Zones (AIGZs)—a development that illustrates how regions can capture their share of this global capital. 

Anchored around Blyth and Cobalt Park near Newcastle, the zone is backed by Blackstone (GBP 10bn already committed, with potential to rise to £GBP 20bn) and global tech leaders OpenAI, NVIDIA and Nscale, who are establishing Stargate UK to deliver sovereign AI compute infrastructure. Together, the initiative is expected to create more than 5,000 jobs and position the region as one of Europe’s leading data centre hubs. 

Anchor investors are the catalyst for wider private capital 

The North East case highlights the essential ingredients for a successful AIGZ strategy: 

• An anchor investor and use case: Blackstone’s hyperscale data centre investment created the foundation for international partners to follow. 

  
  

• Enabling infrastructure: Land, grid capacity, and renewable energy commitments gave confidence that large-scale compute can be delivered. 

  
  

• Skills and academic ecosystem: Local universities are positioned to provide the pipeline of people needed to scale. 

  
  

• Policy alignment: National government, local authorities, and international partners (through the new UK-US Tech Prosperity Deal) are pulling in the same direction. 

  
  

This is a textbook example of the anchor-tenant model: once the first investor is secured, enabling infrastructure and policy alignment create the conditions for follow-on investment at far greater scale. Intelligens Consulting has delivered this approach for councils across the UK, using anchor-tenant fibre strategies that unlocked billions of pounds of additional private investment from initial commitments of only hundreds of millions. 

Local authorities cannot succeed with applications alone 

Many councils have expressed interest in AIGZ status. The lesson from the North East is clear: success depends on more than an application form. It requires a credible anchor, enabling infrastructure, and a proactive strategy to align local, national, and international stakeholders. 

Local authorities now have a window of opportunity

Local Authorities that can align infrastructure, anchor investment, and policy support will be the ones to secure transformational projects in their region. 

If you want to explore how to replicate the North East’s success and bring external US investment into your area, speak to one of our advisors by emailing us at Info@intelligensconsulting.com. Intelligens Consulting has helped local authorities design and deliver anchor-tenant strategies that unlock billions in additional private investment.