Apr 21, 2026 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji
A modular data center could be developed on the site of a steelworks in South Wales, UK, after council planners approved the scheme. Era4 plans to build the facility on part of the Liberty Steel plant in Newport, South Wales. Newport City Council granted change-of-use permission for the site at a meeting last month. According to the application, Era4 intends to repurpose an existing building on the site to house modular data center units, with the only external modification being the replacement of the building’s cladding.
The modules would be used to support AI workloads and housed on the building’s first floor, with car parking underneath. According to the application, this design approach is partly due to the proximity of the River Usk, which runs close to the site and presents a potential flood risk. The project is expected to create eight full-time jobs. However, the application does not specify the site’s IT capacity or when it might become operational. Liberty Steel continues to operate at the wider facility, but the building earmarked for the data center is currently vacant.
Launched last year as Carbon3.ai, Era4 rebranded last month. The company unveiled details of its AI platform in September 2025, stating at the time that it would eventually comprise 100,000 GPUs across more than 30 locations. It revealed plans for a modular AI data center in Derbyshire in November 2025, and in December said it had signed an agreement to deploy Nvidia Blackwell Ultra AI infrastructure using HPE’s direct liquid-cooled servers. On its website, the firm claims to have 50MW of available capacity and a pipeline of 4.5GW. It appears to be planning four hyperscale data centers across the UK, alongside a network of 30 “rapid deployment sites,” which could include the Newport facility.
