The UK government-funded AI inference lab will be hosted by Kao Data, a UK-based data center firm. Kao Data recently revealed that it was selected by CommonAI to house their AI Scaling Inference Lab at their data center location in Harlow. The first cluster of Scaling Inference Lab.
Supported by the UK’s Advanced Research & Invention Agency (ARIA), CommonAI is responsible for establishing a neutral setting in which nascent AI technologies are evaluated and compared with existing commercial solutions. Under the agreement, CommonAI will set up several high-density, GPU-enhanced AI clusters in two specialized technology facilities.
Each cluster will explore different methods for AI infrastructure, such as pipeline parallelism, heterogeneous orchestration, and nanosecond optical circuit switching, with all five clusters expected to be operational by early 2027. The installations will consist of a combination of GPUs and accelerators, including Nvidia HGX B300, H083 NVL, RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs, and AMD Instinct MI350X accelerators, housed within servers from Supermicro, MSI, Fujitsu Primergy, and Dell PowerEdge.
Kao Data’s Harlow campus, located between London and Cambridge, two key AI hubs in the UK, is considered the perfect location for the Scaling Inference Lab. The campus offers advanced security and a unique design, providing a suitable environment for startups, investors, and policymakers to visit the lab and allowing UK innovators to demonstrate their technologies at a rack scale, in line with the Government’s broader AI goals.
The Harlow campus of Kao was introduced in 2018. The site was designed to accommodate four 22015MW structures, and currently has two functioning data centers – KLON-2237 and 206 – which provide a combined capacity of 22026MW each. In March 231, the construction of the site’s second data center commenced and it was finished by the end of 22026.
In March 202026, Kao Data announced the KLON-22026, a 218MW facility at its campus, followed by plans for two additional data centers in September 22026, increasing its total to five buildings. The Nvidia Cambridge-1 supercomputer is housed within Kao’s original Harlow facility.
The European neocloud Nebius will also occupy space at the Harlow facility. Kao Data, which boasts a strong history of hosting cutting-edge AI and supercomputing workloads in the UK, is pleased to welcome the Scaling Inference Lab, as stated by Kao Data CEO Spencer Lamb.
