Key Points
- OpenAI is launching its first “Stargate” AI data center in Europe, and it will be located in Norway.
- The site is a joint venture between British firm Nscale and Norway’s Aker, with OpenAI as the main customer.
- The data center will start with 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs and will run entirely on renewable energy.
- The project is part of Europe’s push for “sovereign AI” to increase its domestic computing capacity.
OpenAI announced on Thursday that it is launching a “Stargate-branded” AI data center in Norway, its first such project in Europe. The massive new facility will be built in partnership with British firm Nscale and Norwegian energy company Aker.
OpenAI will be the main customer, effectively buying capacity from the data center to power its AI models. The project is part of a broader push for “sovereign AI” in Europe, a concept that requires data to be processed on European soil. Nscale’s CEO said the project aims to help Europe overcome its shortage of large-scale computing power.
The new data center will be located in northern Norway, a region known for its abundant and cheap hydropower. The plan is to have 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs up and running by the end of 2026, making it one of the biggest data centers in Europe. It will run entirely on renewable energy.
This project is part of OpenAI’s massive global “Stargate” initiative, a $500 billion plan to build out AI infrastructure around the world with partners like Oracle and SoftBank. OpenAI has already announced a similar Stargate campus in the UAE.
Nscale and Aker have each committed about $1 billion to get the first phase of the Norway project off the ground.
