Norwegian investment company ventures into the AI boom in the frigid north.
Norwegian industrial investment firm Aker has revealed plans to establish an AI "factory" in the Arctic, joining other companies that are moving north to leverage abundant green energy and natural cooling for energy-intensive data centers.
The facility will be situated in Narvik, a coastal town in Norway that is located 220km within the Arctic Circle. Aker's president and CEO, Øyvind Eriksen, noted that the site has access to 230MW of power and is prepared for construction to begin. He mentioned that talks with potential tech firms and partners for the initiative are ongoing.
However, Eriksen shared limited information about the facility's intended purpose, simply stating it will "act as a catalyst for industrial development, job creation, and export revenues."
“AI and data centers are becoming essential to global business, and northern Norway is uniquely positioned to benefit,” Eriksen explained. “The region provides abundant, affordable hydropower and clean energy, as well as the conditions necessary to attract investment and encourage innovation.”
Aker, which is primarily owned by Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke, has several AI and software investments, including stakes in Bitcoin investment firm Seetee and industrial data company Cognite. Eriksen remarked that the AI facility in Narvik would present an opportunity to "enter a new value chain early."
The Nordic region is quickly emerging as a global center for AI data infrastructure. Last year, Google invested an additional €1bn in its Hamina campus in southern Finland, marking its seventh expansion. This data center upgrade is intended to meet the rising demand for AI computing while utilizing the region's ample renewable energy resources.
Nearby, Amsterdam-based Nebius announced plans in October to triple its GPU capacity at its Mäntsälä site in Sweden, targeting 60,000 GPUs for AI applications.
Additionally, in Sweden, Microsoft invested $3.2bn (€2.7bn) last year to enhance its cloud and AI capacity across its three data centers in the country. The tech giant is also reportedly working on a dozen new sites in Finland as part of its "power-first" strategy to meet significant AI computing demands while striving for carbon-negative goals.
Beyond major tech companies, the Nordics are fostering their own homegrown AI enterprises, such as Finland's Silo AI, which was acquired by chipmaker AMD in a $665mn (€571mn) transaction in October.
With Aker now joining the AI movement, the region's remote areas could be poised to become the epicenter of Europe's next tech competition.
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Norwegian investment company ventures into the AI boom in the frigid north.
Aker is the most recent company venturing to the far north to take advantage of plentiful green energy and natural cooling for energy-intensive data centres.