Era4
Technology partner in the Lumen Sovereign coalition.
Last refreshed: 15 June 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Can a startup build a private national grid dedicated to AI compute?
Timeline for Era4
Joined as named coalition partner for Lumen Sovereign launch
UK Startups and Innovation: Cosine builds Britain's sovereign AI model- What does Era4 do in the Lumen Sovereign AI coalition?
- Era4 is the deployment-infrastructure partner, converting brownfield and energy sites into a distributed sovereign-compute network powered by its own renewables, providing the physical compute layer Cosine's model runs on.Source: Lowdown
- Who runs Era4?
- Era4 is led by chief executive Tom Humphreys, with Joseph Parry as executive chair and Sana Khareghani, the former head of the UK Government's Office for AI, as chief strategy officer.Source: Era4
- How much is Era4 investing in UK data centres?
- Era4 is pursuing a £1bn capital-expenditure programme, of which roughly £65m has been deployed across more than 40 sites, with around 50MW of power secured and a 500MW-plus target.Source: Era4
- Where is Era4's first compute facility?
- Era4's first 5MW facility is under construction in the East Midlands, part of a distributed network of brownfield sites the company powers from its own renewable generation.Source: Era4
Background
Era4 is the deployment-infrastructure partner in Cosine's Lumen Sovereign Coalition, the thirteen-company group behind what Cosine calls Britain's first sovereign frontier AI model, unveiled at London Tech Week on 8 June 2026. Era4 converts brownfield and former energy sites into a distributed network of compute facilities, each powered from its own renewable generation, a model it frames as a private "National Grid for AI".
The company was incorporated in 2025 and rebranded twice in quick succession, from Neoghost to Carbon3AI and then to Era4 in March 2026. It is headquartered in Shoreditch, east London, and led by chief executive Tom Humphreys, with Joseph Parry as executive chair and Sana Khareghani, formerly head of the UK Government's Office for AI, as chief strategy officer.
Era4 is pursuing a £1bn capital-expenditure programme, of which roughly £65m has been deployed across more than 40 sites. It has secured around 50MW of power and is targeting 500MW and beyond, with its first 5MW facility under way in the East Midlands. The plan addresses the binding constraint on UK data-centre growth, the saturated grid that has pushed operators away from the South East.