OpenAI's First European AI Data Center Lands in Norway, 100,000 GPUs to Forge the Nordic AI Heartbeat

On July 31, 2025, OpenAI announced the construction of its first European artificial intelligence data center—"Stargate Norway"—in the small town of Narvik in northern Norway.

This project is a joint venture developed by OpenAI in collaboration with Norwegian energy company Aker and UK AI infrastructure provider Nscale. With an investment scale of $2 billion, this major initiative plans to deploy 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs by the end of 2026.

OpenAI's decision to build its first European AI data center in the small town of Narvik in northern Norway is based on multiple strategic considerations. Norway's abundant hydropower resources account for 88% of the country's electricity generation, while electricity prices in the Narvik region are as low as $0.06 per kilowatt-hour, only two-thirds of the EU average. The local cool climate significantly reduces data center cooling costs, and the mature industrial base provides essential support for the project. This site selection reflects a new trend in AI infrastructure development: proximity to cheap power sources to meet the growing energy demands of AI computing.

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The project will have an initial capacity of 230 megawatts with potential expansion to 290 megawatts. Powered entirely by renewable energy, Stargate Norway is projected to become one of Europe's largest AI infrastructure facilities.

Nscale and Aker have each invested approximately $1 billion in the initial 20-megawatt phase of the project. The entire project has an initial capacity of 230 megawatts, with plans for an additional expansion of 290 megawatts. OpenAI, as the "anchor tenant," will directly purchase computing resources from the data center. This cooperation model is similar to the Stargate project launched by OpenAI in the UAE earlier this year, reflecting OpenAI's strategic approach to global infrastructure deployment.

The announcement of the Stargate Norway project comes at a time when the EU is accelerating its AI sovereignty strategy. Just this week, the EU unveiled a multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure investment plan, including $11.8 billion to build 13 "AI factories."

Nscale CEO Josh Payne emphasized the intention to "leverage European sovereign computing power" to serve the region. Norway currently has 83 data centers, ranking third in Western Europe in per capita terms, behind only Ireland and Luxembourg.

Data disclosed by OpenAI shows that millions of businesses and individuals across the European continent use ChatGPT and its API services daily. In Norway alone, the number of weekly active users of ChatGPT has quadrupled over the past year.

The majority of ChatGPT users in Norway are under the age of 35, indicating younger generations' high acceptance of AI technology. This rapidly growing user demand may be one of the key factors driving OpenAI's decision to build a data center in Europe.