Missing money, shipped chips and a 350,000% profit: key takeaways on AI ‘phantom investments’

A site in Essex that is supposed to host ‘one of the most powerful AI computing centres ever built’ is still being used as a scaffolding yard. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

A Guardian investigation has examined a series of massive AI investments announced by the government over the past two years, comparing what was promised with what has so far been delivered.

The investigation centres on two companies backed by the chipmaker Nvidia and central to the UK’s AI plans, Nscale and CoreWeave.