A £300 million expansion of DataVita’s North Lanarkshire AI data centres is receiving substantial public financial backing while the Scottish Economy Secretary continues to repeat a claim that the wider development will create more than 3,400 new jobs.
The latest finance will expand DataVita’s existing DV1 facility and build DV3. The publicly owned National Wealth Fund is guaranteeing £202 million of commercial-bank lending, while the Scottish National Investment Bank is contributing £35 million to the financing package.
The two facilities themselves are expected to create around 600 construction jobs and approximately 100 permanent skilled jobs. Their full computing capacity has already been contracted to American AI company CoreWeave for 15 years.
Yet on Tuesday, Scottish Government Economy Secretary Stephen Flynn again used the much larger figure attached to the overall AI Growth Zone.
“This investment marks a milestone in the creation of Scotland’s first AI Growth Zone in North Lanarkshire,” Flynn said.
“I welcome the economic growth it is set to deliver across the region – including more than 3,400 new jobs and private investment totalling more than £8 billion.”
The limitations behind the 3,400 figure are no longer obscure, they are now part of the public record.
Public support came before firm jobs commitments
Modern Scot reported in July that Scottish Government papers showed officials were already working to support DataVita and CoreWeave while still trying to establish what employment benefits CoreWeave would actually commit to.
A briefing for the First Minister said the Scottish Government wanted to “facilitate this investment” and “find a path through” grid-connection and planning difficulties.
Officials discussed reducing barriers, helping with electricity connections and adopting a “Team Scotland” approach involving the Scottish Government, North Lanarkshire Council, Scottish Enterprise, ScottishPower Energy Networks and the National Energy System Operator.
But in the same briefing officials said they wanted to discuss employment and skills and “understand what commitments CoreWeave are considering in this area”.
They were also advised to ask what CoreWeave could actually bring to Scotland through universities, the technology sector and wider economic activity.
North Lanarkshire Council was meanwhile increasing staffing in planning, building standards and environmental services “at risk”, while Scottish Enterprise was making internal changes to organise its work around green data centres.
Officials were still discussing what additional benefits could be secured from DataVita’s investment and said arriving at a “full, defensible position” was important.
The sequence is therefore significant.
Public bodies were already organising themselves to help the development proceed while some of the most important questions about jobs and public benefit were still being worked out.
The 3,400 figure is not 3,400 identified jobs
When the UK Government announced the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone in January, it promoted the project as supporting more than 3,400 jobs.
Subsequent information obtained by Action to Protect Rural Scotland showed how that estimate had been calculated.
The UK Government said the number was based on employment projections for the proposed Cambois data-centre development in Northumberland, adjusted for the proposed scale of Lanarkshire and then increased using employment multipliers of around 1.5 to 1.6.
Using that methodology, APRS calculated the headline 3,400 figure as roughly:
333 operational data-centre jobs;
1,000 construction jobs; and
about 2,066 indirect or induced jobs elsewhere in the economy.
That is APRS’s calculation of the Government methodology, not an official Government breakdown.
But it exposes a crucial distinction.
More than half of the headline figure appears to depend upon jobs predicted to arise indirectly through economic modelling rather than people directly employed to build or operate the data centres.
The UK Government has itself acknowledged another limitation.
When asked in Parliament to break AI Growth Zone employment down between construction, permanent on-site posts, remote jobs and indirect employment, AI minister Kanishka Narayan said the Government did not make specific assumptions about the geographical location of indirectly generated jobs.
That means an indirect job included in the Lanarkshire forecast does not necessarily have to be in North Lanarkshire.
It may not even be in Scotland.
Today’s £300m project has a much clearer jobs number
The latest financing provides something against which the larger political claim can now be measured.
DataVita is raising approximately £300 million.
The National Wealth Fund is guaranteeing £202 million of the commercial lending.
The Scottish National Investment Bank is investing £35 million.
CoreWeave has contracted the full capacity of DV1 and DV3 for 15 years.
And the employment forecast attached specifically to those two facilities is around 600 construction jobs and approximately 100 permanent positions.
Those are much firmer numbers than the wider 3,400 figure.
There is no contradiction in saying a large infrastructure project can generate jobs outside the buildings themselves. Construction, suppliers and subsequent investment can all create employment.
The problem is presenting an economic projection in language which can easily be understood as 3,400 new jobs being created in the area without making clear how much of the figure depends upon multipliers and indirect employment.
That distinction became particularly important when Flynn repeated the number on 18 August.
By then, the methodology behind the estimate had already been challenged publicly.
The Government had already told Parliament it could not specify the geographical location of indirect jobs.
Scottish Government papers had already shown officials seeking clarification about CoreWeave’s employment commitments.
And the actual facilities receiving £300 million of finance now had a published forecast of about 100 permanent jobs.
Flynn nevertheless described the project as delivering “more than 3,400 new jobs” across the region.
CoreWeave wanted to go much further
There is another reason the jobs question needs resolving now.
Modern Scot’s earlier investigation revealed that CoreWeave had told Scottish officials it wanted to expand much further.
The government briefing recorded that Mike Mattacola, then CoreWeave’s UK general manager, wanted to invest more in Scotland and move “with urgency” to build another four data centres after the initial one was established.
The documents did not show four approved projects or four financed developments.
They did show the scale of CoreWeave’s ambition.
The same papers showed the Scottish Government agreeing to a Team Scotland approach and discussing ways to remove barriers to further data-centre investment.
This week, the National Wealth Fund described DV1 and DV3 as laying the foundation for the wider Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone.
That makes the employment question larger than one financing announcement.
If Scotland is to support further expansion, the public should know what measurable economic return is attached to it.
What has actually been promised?
There is currently no published document identifying 3,400 individual jobs.
There is no published list showing which employers will provide all of them.
There is no published timetable showing when 3,400 workers will be recruited.
There is no published breakdown demonstrating that all of the indirect employment will be in Lanarkshire or Scotland.
And the Scottish Government papers previously examined by Modern Scot show that officials were still discussing employment, skills and wider benefits while simultaneously seeking to facilitate the investment.
That does not prove the 3,400 jobs will never exist.
Nor does the published evidence establish that Flynn knowingly made a false statement.
It establishes something narrower and more important for public scrutiny: the phrase “more than 3,400 new jobs” is being repeated as a political benefit while the underlying figure includes modelled indirect employment whose location the Government itself says it does not specifically assume.
Meanwhile, the public support is no longer theoretical.
The £202 million guarantee exists.
The £35 million Scottish National Investment Bank commitment exists.
The £300 million financing exists.
The 15-year CoreWeave contract exists.
And the presently published permanent employment forecast for the two facilities receiving that money is about 100 jobs.
If Stephen Flynn and the governments backing the project are confident that more than 3,400 new jobs will be delivered, there is a straightforward way to settle the issue.
Publish the breakdown.
Show who will employ them.
Show which are permanent.
Show which are temporary.
Show which exist only through an economic multiplier.
And show how many will actually be in North Lanarkshire.
The public backing is now concrete.
The jobs claim should be held to the same standard.
Sources
Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone secures £300 million investment as Dell establishes Scottish base
Source: UK Government
Date: 18 August 2026
Full active link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/lanarkshire-ai-growth-zone-secures-300-million-investment-as-dell-establishes-scottish-base
DataVita secures £300 million for data centre rollout in Scotland’s AI Growth Zone, with backing from National Wealth Fund and major lenders
Source: National Wealth Fund
Date: 18 August 2026
Full active link:
https://www.nationalwealthfund.org.uk/news-and-publications/news/datavita-secures-300-million-for-data-centre-rollout-in-scotland-s-ai-growth-zone-with-backing-from-national-wealth-fund-and-major-lenders/
DataVita secures £300 million for data centre rollout in Scotland’s AI Growth Zone
Source: Scottish National Investment Bank
Date: 18 August 2026
Full active link:
https://www.thebank.scot/
More than 3,400 jobs and targeted support for local communities to help tackle the cost of living as Lanarkshire named latest AI Growth Zone
Source: UK Government — Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Date: 29 January 2026
Full active link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/more-than-3400-jobs-and-targeted-support-for-local-communities-to-help-tackle-the-cost-of-living-as-lanarkshire-named-latest-ai-growth-zone
AI Growth Zones: Job Creation — Written Question 111668
Source: UK Parliament
Date: 16 February 2026
Full active link:
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-02-09/111668/
Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone will create a tiny fraction of the jobs promised
Source: Action to Protect Rural Scotland
Date: 6 July 2026
Full active link:
https://aprs.scot/press-release/lanarkshire-ai-growth-zone-will-create-a-tiny-fraction-of-the-jobs-promised/
Artificial Intelligence Growth Zone correspondence — FOI 202600515692
Source: Scottish Government
Date: 15 July 2026
Full active link:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600515692/
CoreWeave Told Ministers It Wanted Four More Scottish Data Centres
Source: Modern Scot
Date: July 2026
Full active link:
https://modern.scot/coreweave-told-ministers-it-wanted-four-more-scottish-data-centres/
