OpenAI's first European AI data center will be built in Norway

The company announced last week that it is opening Stargate Norway, Europe's first AI data center, in partnership with UK-based AI cloud infrastructure provider Nscale and Norway-based energy infrastructure firm Aker.

Nscale will design and build the data center site. Aker and Nscale will be in a 50/50 partnership. OpenAI will be the buyer of the project and will purchase capacity from the data center.

The announcement comes amid a period in which Europe is racing to capture the AI-dominated market and invest in data centers and processing power.

Nscale and Aker announced a $1 billion investment commitment for the first 20 megawatt (MW) phase of the project. OpenAI stated that Stargate Norway will initially offer 230 MW of capacity, expand to 290 MW, and will be powered by 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by the end of 2026.