Stellium: Cobalt Park Campus

Location. Cobalt Park, Wallsend, North Tyneside. The campus sits on the A19 corridor about 7 miles northeast of Newcastle city centre, on former Tyne Riverside Enterprise Zone land.

History. Highbridge developed three data centre shells: DC1 (shell and core 2010), DC3 (December 2012) and DC2 (January 2013). Investor LLPs funded DC2 and DC3 to claim enterprise zone allowances; the Supreme Court denied those allowances in 2024. Stellium Datacenters launched in 2016 and opened DC1 in December 2016. In 2021, Digital 9 Infrastructure bought DC1's long lease (SeaEdge UK1) for £15m, with Stellium as occupational tenant. Stellium bought the 125-year leasehold back in June 2025. Tiger Infrastructure Partners backs Stellium. DC2 and DC3 have never been let; Highbridge markets them as shells.

Shared infrastructure. Four 20 MVA 11 kV feeds run from the adjacent National Grid Tynemouth 275 kV substation to two dedicated switch rooms. Power is distributed to each building on a 2N basis. DC1 has FG Wilson 1,500 kVA standby generators, a 2.3 MWh containerised battery and rooftop solar (2023).

Connectivity. DC1 holds the sole UK cable landing stations for Aqua Comms' North Sea Connect and the NO-UK cable to Norway (both live March 2022). It also hosts the NCL-IX internet exchange and Stellium's 40 km metro dark-fibre ring.

Milestones. DC1 became OCP Ready in 2023 and opened the UK's first OCP Experience Centre (immersion cooling with Submer) in January 2025. North Tyneside permitted 15 modular plant units for the remaining DC1 halls in May 2025 (24/01678/FULM). The government named Cobalt Park part of the North East AI Growth Zone in September 2025. OpenAI's Stargate UK named the park as a site, then paused in April 2026.