Aker And Nscale To Build OpenAI’s Largest Data Center In Europe

Norway’s Aker ASA and the London-based infrastructure company Nscale Global Holdings announced on Thursday a new joint venture to build OpenAI’s largest artificial intelligence facility in Europe. The data center project, called Stargate Norway, will be located in Kvandal, in northern Norway. The companies aim to deploy 100,000 NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) by the end of 2026.

According to Aker’s announcement, Stargate Norway will be powered by renewable energy and deliver 230MW of capacity. The companies plan to scale operations over the coming years and provide AI infrastructure for more companies, researchers, and communities across Norway and Europe.

“Stargate Norway will be designed to provide secure, scalable, and energy-efficient infrastructure for sovereign AI workloads across Europe, fully aligned with European regulatory frameworks,” states the document. “Stargate Norway is planned to deliver 230MW of capacity, with ambitions to expand by an additional 290MW – positioning it among the most significant AI infrastructure investments in Europe.”

The project has been launched under OpenAI’s “OpenAI for Countries” programme, and it will be the first AI infrastructure in Europe under the initiative. It will be jointly owned (50/50) by Aker and Nscale, and both parties have committed to 1 billion for the initial phase of the project.

According to CNBC, OpenAI will act as “off-taker,” meaning it will commit to purchasing the compute capacity provided by the facility. The companies aim to install 100,000 NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) by the end of 2026 to power large-scale AI models.

“Part of the purpose of this project is to partner with OpenAI and leverage European sovereign compute to release additional services and features to the European continent,” said Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale, in an interview with CNBC.

Aker also highlighted the advantages of the site’s location—just outside Narvik—noting its abundant hydropower, limited transmission capacity, and low local electricity demand. The cool climate and stable environmental conditions make Kvandal “an ideal location” for hosting large-scale AI infrastructure

The Stargate Project was initially launched in the United States in January in a joint venture including the White House and other investors such as SoftBank and Oracle in a $500 billion joint venture.