Microsoft has withdrawn from Nscale’s planned artificial-intelligence data center in Loughton, Essex, after the local electricity network warned that adequate grid capacity might not be available until the early-to-mid 2030s.
Nscale announced the campus in September 2025 in partnership with Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI. The company, which grew out of bitcoin-mining infrastructure, had promoted the site as a major British AI project.
Nscale said its relationship with Microsoft remains strong, that other Microsoft contracts are unaffected and that it remains committed to the Loughton project and the United Kingdom. The company is considering alternative power sources and other British expansion sites, but Microsoft’s departure removes the announced anchor customer for the Essex facility.
The dispute reflects a broader bottleneck facing Britain’s data-center expansion.
The delay also exposes the higher infrastructure burden of shifting bitcoin-mining sites toward AI computing. AI-ready facilities can cost an estimated $8 million to $15 million per megawatt, compared with roughly $700,000 to $1 million for bitcoin-mining capacity, and AI customers require continuous operation. Unless Nscale secures an independent power supply or the connection timetable accelerates, the cleared Loughton site may remain unused for years.