DataVita's £25m OakNorth Loan Was a Bridge
A £25m facility from digital bank OakNorth funded construction at DataVita's Scottish flagship site while a much larger £300m package, guaranteed in part by the UK's National Wealth Fund, was still being finalised.
DataVita's £25m OakNorth loan is not fresh growth capital - it's a bridge that kept contractors on site at its flagship Scottish data centre while HFD Group closed a much larger £300m package, £202m of it under a National Wealth Fund guarantee, announced six days earlier. The story is how long state-backed debt takes even with CoreWeave's lease already signed.
Traction Desk · 4 min read- The £25m OakNorth loan is bridge financing, not a new capital round - it covers a construction gap while HFD Group's £300m package closed.
- That £300m package, announced six days earlier on August 18, 2026, carries a £202m National Wealth Fund guarantee on an 80% lending tranche.
- Both Scottish facilities are contracted to CoreWeave on a 15-year lease - the signed tenancy, not DataVita's balance sheet, is what makes short-term lending bankable.
- Government jobs and investment figures (700 direct jobs, 3,400+ across the zone, £8bn+ in projected private investment) apply to the larger package, not the £25m bridge.
On August 24, 2026, DataVita said OakNorth had provided a £25 million loan to fund construction at its flagship data centre site outside Glasgow (UKTN). HFD Group chief executive William Hill called it "a significant milestone," but the more precise read is mechanical: this is interim financing, covering costs while HFD Group finished arranging a much larger package for the same expansion. £25m is a rounding error next to what closed six days earlier.
What closed six days earlier
On August 18, 2026, DataVita and HFD Group announced a £300 million debt package to expand its existing DV1 site and build a new DV3 facility in North Lanarkshire, inside Scotland's newly designated AI Growth Zone (STV News). The UK's National Wealth Fund guaranteed £202 million of a £252.5 million lending tranche - roughly 80 percent of it - with ING, ABN AMRO, Santander, the Scottish National Investment Bank and Siemens Financial Services supplying the underlying debt.
CoreWeave's lease is the collateral that matters
Both Scottish facilities are contracted to CoreWeave, the US AI cloud provider, on a 15-year lease (STV News). That signed tenancy is what made OakNorth's bridge loan writable at all: lending against a committed 15-year revenue stream is a different underwriting exercise than lending against a speculative build. Reporting on the OakNorth facility ties the new capacity directly to CoreWeave's demand, not general-purpose expansion (Techerati) - the anchor tenant, not the operator's balance sheet, is doing the derisking.
The jobs and investment framing sits on top
Scotland's government has pitched the wider North Lanarkshire buildout as 700 direct DataVita jobs, more than 3,400 jobs across the AI Growth Zone, and over £8 billion in projected private investment for the region (STV News). Economy Secretary Stephen Flynn and UK AI minister Kanishka Narayan both used the August 18 announcement to frame the zone as proof the UK can win AI infrastructure investment. None of those figures attach to the £25m OakNorth loan - they belong to the £300m package it was bridging toward.
The bet
Watch whether OakNorth-style bridge loans become routine in UK data centre finance rather than a one-off. State-guaranteed packages like the National Wealth Fund's take months to close, but hyperscaler leases like CoreWeave's don't wait for the paperwork. If more sponsors borrow short-term against a signed 15-year tenancy to keep contractors moving, the real gatekeeper of AI infrastructure buildout won't be the lender - it will be whoever signs the anchor lease first.
- Why did DataVita need a separate £25m loan from OakNorth if it already had a £300m package lined up?
- Because the £300m package - backed by a £202m National Wealth Fund guarantee and lenders including ING, ABN AMRO and Santander - was still being finalised. OakNorth's £25m kept construction moving in the gap, per HFD Group chief executive William Hill (UKTN).
- What is CoreWeave's role in the deal?
- CoreWeave, the US AI cloud infrastructure provider, has signed a 15-year lease across DataVita's expanded and new Scottish facilities, giving lenders a committed revenue stream to underwrite against (STV News).
- Where is the expansion happening?
- DataVita's flagship site sits outside Glasgow; the £300m package also funds a new DV3 facility in North Lanarkshire, inside Scotland's designated AI Growth Zone (UKTN; STV News).