OpenAI is making a major investment in Norway with its first AI data center in Europe

OpenAI is making a major investment in Norway with its first AI data center in Europe, called Stargate Norway. This project is a collaboration with British AI infrastructure company Nscale and Norwegian energy firm Aker ASA, forming a 50/50 joint venture. The initial phase will involve about a $1 billion investment to build a facility near Narvik in northern Norway, powered entirely by renewable hydropower.

The data center will initially have a capacity of 230 MW and install 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by the end of 2026, with ambitions to expand its capacity by an additional 290 MW in future phases, potentially scaling tenfold as demand grows. OpenAI will be a primary customer (“off-taker”) of the compute capacity under its “OpenAI for Countries” program, which aims to increase AI infrastructure sovereignty and accessibility across Europe.

The project emphasizes sustainability, leveraging Norway’s cool climate, low electricity prices, and abundant renewable energy for efficient and large-scale AI computing. It will provide secure, scalable, and sovereign AI infrastructure for customers across Norway, Northern Europe, and the UK, benefiting startups, researchers, and public/private sectors.

OpenAI’s Norway investment is a landmark $1 billion+ AI infrastructure project to build a state-of-the-art, renewable-powered data center addressing Europe’s AI compute needs and advancing local AI ecosystem development.