OpenAI to launch AI data center in Norway, its first in Europe

a year ago by Sunshine to c/buyeuropean

OpenAI said the new Norway-based data center comes as the European Union races to achieve AI sovereignty by investing in data center and compute power.

Sunshine 18 points a year ago

Every nearby resident groans at the upcoming issues with the power.

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Eyekaytee 4 points a year ago

Does Norway have limited power capacity like America?

It looks like it is super green and exporting lots to its neighbours:

https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/NO/72h/hourly

This is the perfect place to build AI data centres, heaps of green renewables in abundance

If only the EU could catch up

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breecher 6 points a year ago

Or that energy could be used for more productive things instead of being wasted on this shit.

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Eyekaytee 2 points a year ago

Europeans are using AI, maybe you missed this?

Over 13% of EU businesses with at least 10 employees have embraced Artificial Intelligence, says Eurostat, a 5.5% increase from 2023, with all member states reporting growth in the use of AI technology.

Large companies - meaning those with at least 250 employees - reported much higher AI use: 42% on average.

https://www.euronews.com/...

The EU should be powering it's own data centres, not relying on the Americans

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Auli 3 points a year ago

Their still relying on the Americans. It's an American company. And America well suck up all their data no matter what EU law says.

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tormeh 3 points a year ago

Some regions have more power than others. Thankfully this data center will be in the north, where electricity and cooling are both plentiful.

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ctrl_alt_esc 2 points a year ago

Only that no one needs this crap in the first place

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Eyekaytee 0 points a year ago

i can’t believe you bothered to post that, what a waste of electricity

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MysteriousSophon21 2 points a year ago

Norway's perfect for these centers not just for the abundant hydro power, but also becuase the cold climate saves a ton on cooling costs which is actually a huge energy expense for data centers.

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Tweak 9 points a year ago

The Nordic countries are falling over themselves to get people in to build datacentres. In Sweden, the government literally gave Microsoft the land to build their datacentres on. They've got something like 25x 5 COLO 4 Cell datacentres in various states of contrsuction, and I think another 25 more lined up.

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Flukas88 9 points a year ago

Cough cough cloud act cough cough

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biofaust 2 points a year ago

Yeah, came here to say this. The data location makes almost no difference if confidentiality is the issue.

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Auli 4 points a year ago

Why just do America can have access to all their data. When the fuck are governments going to wake up.

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GandalftheBlack 4 points a year ago

First and hopefully last

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Eyekaytee -6 points a year ago

Hopefully not! Exporting your dirty problems to another country is not a climate solution!

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breecher 4 points a year ago

Who are you talking to? What are you talking about?

Did you wander into the wrong thread?

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Eyekaytee -1 points a year ago

no? what are you confused about in particular?

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cupcakezealot 2 points a year ago

gross why would norway allow this?

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Gsus4 8 points a year ago

Cheap hydro power?

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XTL 5 points a year ago

Money. Employment. Money. More business opportunities. Money. Fame and success and growth. Also money.

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boonhet 2 points a year ago

Construction jobs are temporary. Doubt they'll be making a lot of money off this tbh. More of an image thing.

At least they won't have to export as much of their renewable energy anymore

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vane 1 point a year ago

I bet it will be financed from EU tax money.

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ijon_the_human 8 points a year ago

Norway is not an EU member state, so most likely that's a no.

Granted, there are some financial programmes between the two so it's not completely out of the question.

And what do you mean by funded?

Direct funding of the project?
Subsidizing European companies that build data centres?
Subsidizing investment in key areas of technology?
Subsidizing buildings that meet certain energy efficiency standards?
Trying to court AI companies with legislation?
Subsidizing regional development?

In the end you can interpret the question and answer however you want so that it fits your political views.

However:

The EU usually declares direct investments quite clearly and takes pride in them
The data centre company Aker is British and UK isn't an EU member state either
The funding sums from all the other parties have been mentioned and there is no mention of EU involvement
Norway is a rich country and its sovereign wealth fund is the largest in the world

We probably agree on the politics around AI and data centres, impact on the environment and so on but what irks me are all the knee-jerk, no second thought comments that contribute to unnecessary polarization and to a group think that's allergic to facts and curiosity.

And lastly, sorry to pick on your comment like this.

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vane 3 points a year ago

Aker is just investment fund that invest mostly in oil and gas and Nscale is another management company founded in 2024 with $30 million found and then with $155 million Series A to buy datacenters. They don't have money especially $20 billions but I bet EU have this money so investors are creating this myth that they can take EU money and build something for them.

Those companies has never built anything. Nscale is in partnership with openai from start. You can read more about their spin off from crypto here. https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/...

It's shady business there, at least for me.

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