Picture of Narviks centre
Today, Aker and NScale announced their investment in building Europe’s first OpenAI Data Centre, which will be located in Northern Norway.
The companies plan is to invest 10 billion Norwegian kroner in the first phase of the project, called “Stargate Norway.” This AI data centre will use 100,000 Nvidia GPUs, with plans to scale up to 250,000. These processors will be used to train, store, and run artificial intelligence systems.
According to their press release, the facility will require 230 megawatts of electricity to operate, equivalent to the power consumption of around 80.000 houses.
Narvik was chosen as the location due to its cold climate, access to hydropower, low local electricity demand, and limited transmission capacity. These factors are expected to result in electricity prices below the European average.
The facility will run entirely on renewable energy and use closed-loop, direct-to-chip liquid cooling for maximum efficiency. Excess heat from the GPUs will be reused to support low-carbon businesses in the region, according to the press release.
The project also aims to collaborate with local and regional academic institutions to support AI research and development.
Customers will be offered priority access to high-performance computing resources, models, and AI services from the Narvik facility. Any surplus capacity will be made available to public and private sector users across the UK, Nordics, and Northern Europe.
Stargate Norway will be jointly owned by Aker and NScale, a European AI data centre developer based in London. NScale recently acquired the data centre in Glomfjord from Arkon Energy. Aker ASA (“Aker”) is an industrial investment company headquartered in Fornebu,
Norway.
This Norwegian facility is one of many data centres OpenAI plans to build worldwide. Also, OpenAI recently signed a partnership with the UK Government to accelerate AI adoption and explore ways to bolster the necessary infrastructure, as well as a partnership with the Government of Estonia to implement ChatGPT across secondary schools.