OpenAI spearheads one of Europe’s biggest data centers with 100,000 Nvidia chips

Jaque Silva| Nurphoto | Getty ImagesOpenAI on Thursday said it is launching a Stargate-branded AI data center in Norway, marking its first foray into Europe with such a ject.British firm Nscale will design and build the site as part of a 50-50 joint venture with Norwegian energy infrastructure firm Aker.OpenAI will be a so-called "off-taker" in the ject, meaning it will effectively buy capacity from the data center."Part of the purpose of this ject is to partner with OpenAI and leverage European sovereign compute to release additional services and features to the European continent," Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale, told CNBC in an interview on Thursday.The site aims to der 100,000 NVIDIA graphics cessing units (GPU) by the end of 2026, "with the intention to expand significantly in the years ahead," OpenAI said in a press release

The companies said the data center will run entirely on renewable power and have 230 megawatts of capacity, making it one of the biggest in Europe.Nvidia's GPUs have become the de facto choice of chips for data centers because of their ability to handle large AI workloads.For the Norway ject, Nscale and Aker have each committed around $1 billion to the initial 20MW phase of the ject

The site will be located in Kvandal, just outside Narvik in northern Norway

The companies said the region is characterized by "abundant hydropower, low local electricity demand, and limited transmission capacity."Payne declined to on how Nscale would fund this ject or the financial benefits of the ject to the company

The CEO said there were no plans for additional Stargate data centers but that Nscale has its own "robust European expansion plan."Stargate was initially launched this year in the U.S. as an infrastructure ject between OpenAI, Oracle, Japan's SoftBank, and the UAE's MGX

In June, the company and its partners announced plans to build a Stargate campus in the UAE.Europe has meanwhile been pushing the concept of "sovereign AI," requiring data centers and AI workloads to be located and cessed on European soil.Payne said Europe has two "blems" — the first is that it does not have enough computing capacity, and the second it is "very fragmented.""What the continent needs is large AI infrastructure jects deploying compute [power]

The ecosystem can consume from the ject to build AI ducts, to generate ductivity growth and economic benefit," Payne said.Companies Nvidia and OpenAI have also been touting their ability to der sovereign AI as they look to expand their es.In a trip to Europe this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang urged the continent to build more AI infrastructure

French AI company Mistral announced plans to use Nvidia's GPUs in a new data center planned for France.