OpenAI is launching its first AI data centre in Europe, located in Kvandal near Narvik, Norway.
The project, called Stargate Norway, is a 50-50 joint venture between British cloud infrastructure firm Nscale and Norwegian energy company Aker. OpenAI will purchase computing capacity from the centre.
The facility, scheduled to open by the end of 2026, will house 100,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs), making it one of Europe’s largest AI data centres. It will operate solely on renewable energy from Norway’s abundant hydropower, with a capacity of 230 megawatts and room for future expansion.
Nscale CEO Josh Payne described the project as part of a strategy to boost “European sovereign compute,” providing local AI developers and companies with essential computing power. He noted Europe faces a shortage of computational capacity and a fragmented market, which large infrastructure projects like Stargate Norway aim to address.
This initiative is part of OpenAI’s Stargate programme, which plans to invest $500 billion over four years to build AI infrastructure worldwide with partners including Oracle, Japan’s SoftBank, and UAE’s MGX.
Norway was chosen for its sustainable energy, low local power demand, and limited grid constraints. Nvidia GPUs are key to managing the large AI workloads anticipated.
The project supports Europe’s “sovereign AI” goals, ensuring AI data processing happens within European jurisdiction for security and compliance. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has encouraged more AI infrastructure investment in Europe, with companies like French AI firm Mistral adopting Nvidia technology for new data centres.
While no new Stargate data centres are currently planned, Nscale intends to expand further in Europe.