OpenAI will open its first AI data center in Europe in Norway

OpenAI plans to launch Stargate Norway, its first artificial intelligence data center in Europe, in partnership with British AI cloud infrastructure provider Nscale and Norwegian energy infrastructure company Aker.

Nscale will design and build the site, and this will be a joint venture between the two companies with a 50/50 split. OpenAI will act as the "buyer" in the project, purchasing capacity from the data center.

One of the goals of Stargate Norway is to utilize "European sovereign computing power" for the benefit of the continent. The Norwegian AI ecosystem, including startups and scientific researchers, will receive priority access to the center.

Nscale and Aker have invested approximately $1 billion in the first phase of the project, which has a capacity of 20 MW. Stargate Norway will initially provide 230 MW of capacity, with plans to increase it to 290 MW by the end of 2026. The project will operate using 100,000 Nvidia graphics processing units.

The site will be located near Narvik, a small town in northern Norway. This region is notable for its hydropower plants, cool climate, and developed industrial base.

Stargate Norway comes seven months after OpenAI announced its intention to invest $500 billion in 10 GW of artificial intelligence infrastructure in the US over the next four years in partnership with Oracle and SoftBank. This deal also followed the launch of Stargate UAE earlier this year and the recent signing of an agreement with the UK government to accelerate AI adoption and develop infrastructure.

Source: TechCrunch