OpenAI to launch AI data center in Norway, its first in Europe

OpenAi said on Thursday that it is planning to launch Stargate Norway, its first AI data center in Europe, in collaboration with the British AI cloud infrastructure provider Nscale and Norwegian Energie -infrastructure company Aker.

Nscale will design and build the site, and it will be a 50/50 joint venture between the two companies. OpenAI will be an “off-taker” in the project and buy capacity of the data center.

The announcement comes as Europe races to achieve AI sovereignty and to invest in data centers and to calculate the power. Earlier this week the block revealed details of his Multibillion-Dollar Investment In AI infrastructure, including € 10 billion ($ 11.8 billion) to set up 13 AI factories and € 20 billion as an initial investment in the factories. Data sovereignty is the key to that mission, because of the sensitive nature of business and government data.

Nscale and OpenAi told WAN that Stargate Norway is not part of the plans of the European Union to scale AI at home. Nscale CEO Josh Payne told CNBC That part of the aim of this project is to “use European sovereign calculation” for the continent. The AI Ecosystem of Norway, such as startups and scientific researchers, is given priority access to the center.

CNBC also reported that Nscale and Aker each committed around $ 1 billion with the first 20 Megawatt (MW) phase of the project. OpenAi says that Stargate Norway will initially deliver 230 MW capacity, with plans to extend to 290 MW, and will run at 100,000 Nvidia GPUs towards the end of 2026.

The site is located near Narvik, a small town in Noord -Noorwegen. Said openi A blog post The region is remarkable because of access to hydropower, a cool climate and a ‘adult industrial basis’.

“The facility will fully run on renewable current and is expected to contain a closed-to-chip liquid cooling to guarantee maximum cooling efficiency,” Openai said. “In addition, surplus heat from the GPU systems will be made available to support low-carbon companies in the region.”

According to the EU AI law, which came into force in August 2024 and forbid systems with “unacceptable risk”, companies must take steps to protect the environment to protect the environment and be transparent about the energy consumption of AI models. In addition, the Energy Efficiency -Directive of the Block emphasizes the Energy Efficiency in the IT sector, including data centers. The directive also sends data centers that exceed certain energy -entry thresholds to restore waste heat.

The announcement of Stargate Norway comes seven months after OpenAi announced that it would invest $ 500 billion in 10 Gigawatt AI infrastructure in the United States in the next four years, in collaboration with Oracle and Softbank. The deal also follows the launch of Stargate Uae earlier this year, and a recent signed deal with the British government To accelerate AI adoption and to stimulate the infrastructure.

This article has been updated to clarify that Stargate Norway is separate from the EU investment in AI infrastructure.