OpenAI has announced plans to launch Stargate Norway, its first AI data center in Europe, in collaboration with Nscale, a British AI cloud infrastructure provider, and Aker, a Norwegian energy infrastructure firm.
Nscale will be responsible for designing and constructing the data center through a 50/50 joint venture with Aker. OpenAI will act as an “off-taker,” procuring capacity from the facility.
This initiative emerges as Europe intensifies its efforts to achieve AI sovereignty and bolster investments in data centers and computational capabilities. The EU recently unveiled details of its multibillion-dollar investment in AI infrastructure, allocating €10 billion ($11.8 billion) for establishing 13 AI factories and an initial €20 billion investment in these facilities. Data sovereignty is considered crucial due to the sensitive nature of business and governmental data.
Nscale and OpenAI have clarified that Stargate Norway is independent of the European Union’s AI scaling plans. Nscale CEO Josh Payne stated that the project aims to “leverage European sovereign compute” for the benefit of the continent, prioritizing access for Norway’s AI ecosystem, including startups and scientific researchers.
According to CNBC, Nscale and Aker have each committed approximately $1 billion to the initial 20 MW phase of the project. OpenAI reports that Stargate Norway will initially provide 230 MW of capacity, with plans to expand to 290 MW, and will operate using 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by the end of 2026.
The data center will be located near Narvik in northern Norway, a region selected for its access to hydropower, cool climate, and “mature industrial base,” according to OpenAI’s blog post.
OpenAI stated, “The facility will run entirely on renewable power and is expected to incorporate closed-loop, direct-to-chip liquid cooling to ensure maximum cooling efficiency. Additionally, excess heat from the GPU systems will be made available to support low-carbon enterprises in the region.”
The EU AI Act, effective since August 2024, mandates that data center operators take environmental protection measures and ensure transparency regarding the energy consumption of AI models. The EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive also emphasizes energy efficiency in the ICT sector, including data centers, and mandates waste heat recovery for facilities exceeding certain energy input thresholds.
The Stargate Norway announcement follows OpenAI’s previous announcement of a $500 billion investment in 10 gigawatts of AI infrastructure in the United States over the next four years, in partnership with Oracle and SoftBank. It also follows the launch of Stargate UAE earlier this year and a recent agreement with the U.K. government to accelerate AI adoption and infrastructure development.
