OpenAI is launching its first Europe-based Stargate AI data center in Norway.
British firm Nscale and Norwegian energy company Aker will design and build the site as a 50-50 joint venture. OpenAI will act as an off-taker, buying compute capacity from the facility.
The center aims to house 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs by the end of 2026, running entirely on renewable energy. It will have 230 megawatts of capacity, making it one of Europe’s largest AI data hubs. 
The site will be in Kvandal, near Narvik, northern Norway — an area rich in hydropower but with low local electricity demand and limited transmission capacity.
Nscale and Aker have each committed roughly $1 billion to the initial 20MW phase. The plan is to expand significantly beyond the initial build over time.
Nscale CEO Josh Payne told CNBC Europe faces two major issues: not enough compute capacity and a fragmented market.
“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,” Payne said.
“What the continent needs is large AI infrastructure projects deploying compute [power]. The ecosystem can consume from the project to build AI products, to generate productivity growth and economic benefit.”
The move ties into Europe’s push for “sovereign AI,” keeping data processing on local soil.
The Stargate project first started in the U.S. this year with OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and UAE’s MGX planning a $500 billion investment over four years.
OpenAI and partners also announced plans for a Stargate campus in the UAE in June. Now, Europe is in the mix.
Nvidia’s GPUs remain the dominant hardware choice for AI workloads. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has urged Europe to boost AI infrastructure this year. French AI company Mistral is also building a new Nvidia-powered data center in France.
Payne declined to share how Nscale is funding the project or its financial returns. He said there are no current plans for additional Stargate centers but that Nscale has a robust Europe expansion planned.
