Source: The Guardian
A Guardian source claims OpenAI and infrastructure partner Nscale haven't visited the proposed Cobalt site in the UK or filed any planning applications, despite months of public announcements positioning it as a 2025 reality. The gap between headline commitment and operational groundwork points to either genuine project delays or a messaging effort designed to manage political optics around AI infrastructure investment without executing the work. For the UK government, which publicly backed Stargate as a crown jewel of AI competitiveness, it exposes the risk of being used as a validation tool for corporate PR while accountability mechanisms and actual construction timelines remain opaque.