DataVita raises £300m as state guarantee backs AI campus debt

The UK's National Wealth Fund has put £202 million of public credit behind a Scottish data center campus. The guarantee covers 80 percent of a £252.5 million senior debt tranche provided by ING, ABN AMRO and Santander. The borrower, DataVita, announced the underlying £300 million facility this week.

The facility pays for an expansion of DataVita's DV1 data center and construction of DV3, a new building in the North Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone. The capacity of both buildings is contracted to CoreWeave, an AI cloud firm, under a 15-year lease. DataVita managing director Danny Quinn says construction is well advanced, every megawatt is contracted, and the first facility completes this year. Quinn says the UK needs its own AI capability, built and run in the country. North Lanarkshire received its AI Growth Zone designation earlier this year, a label that brings financial incentives and priority access to power.

The syndicate includes the Scottish National Investment Bank and Siemens Financial Services, lending through Siemens Bank. Their portion is not covered by the guarantee. National Wealth Fund chief executive Oliver Holbourn says private finance is difficult to secure for emerging infrastructure at this scale, and the guarantee addresses that gap. The lineup — three international banks, a national institution and an industrial banking arm — mixes commercial and strategic capital.

For private-infrastructure investors, the structure separates two risks. The CoreWeave lease answers the demand question: the capacity is sold for 15 years. The guarantee answers the question of what happens if the AI cycle turns before the lease runs out. In that case, the three banks take losses first, and the state fund covers its 80 percent share of the tranche beyond that. The public sector absorbs default risk without getting equity, and DataVita's owners keep the upside.

The uncovered portion of the syndicate is a useful detail. The Scottish National Investment Bank and Siemens Financial Services are lending without the state backstop. The coverage does not say why those two accepted uncovered exposure, but their presence means the facility blends government-supported and entirely private credit in one capital stack.

The guarantee's size matters as much as its structure. £202 million is not a token commitment. It changes the expected loss on the senior tranche for ING, ABN AMRO and Santander, and it gives the wider market a measure of how far the state is willing to go. Holbourn says the guarantee gives lenders confidence. The coverage does not say whether the guarantee was the deciding factor in the syndicate's decision to sign, but a backstop that large does not get attached as a formality.

From an allocator's perspective, the deal splits into two distinct credit exposures. The covered tranche resembles a quasi-sovereign risk, while the uncovered portion stands as a straight infrastructure loan. That distinction matters for portfolio construction — the pieces belong in different sleeves — and it gives an investor a clear view of how a state guarantee can reshape the risk profile of a single project.

The National Wealth Fund says the guarantee is meant to lay a foundation for the wider Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone. The deal extends the zone model beyond site selection. North Lanarkshire's designation gave the project an advantage on power and incentives; the guarantee adds a financing advantage. That financing advantage is the most transferable piece of the transaction. A government does not need to build or own data centers. It can put its balance sheet behind the lenders who do. Other governments with AI ambitions are likely to study the structure.