Altman embraces inner Viking, raids Europe with 100K GPU supercluster in Norway

OpenAI's Stargate initiative has teleported to Europe, where the AI flag bearer has enlisted datacenter builder Nscale and Norwegian energy magnate Aker ASA to deploy a 100,000-GPU compute cluster in the Arctic by 2026.

The facility will be located in Kvandal outside the town of Narvik in Norway's northern reaches, and is expected to eventually add 230 megawatts of compute capacity to OpenAI's planned Stargate compute network with the potential to add another 290 megawatts in the future.

"Europe needs more compute to realize the full potential of AI for all Europeans — from developers and researchers to startups and scientists — and we want to help make that happen," OpenAI CEO and hype man Sam Altman said in a canned statement.

Nscale, a London-based bit-barn builder, has been tapped to construct the so-called Stargate Norway facility under a joint venture with industrial investment group Aker ASA. To get the ball rolling, the companies plan to plow approximately $1 billion to bring the first 20 megawatts of capacity online.

"The Kvandal site alone has the potential to scale tenfold in future phases as customer contracts are secured," Aker noted in a release.

And to hit OpenAI's 100,000 GPU target by 2026, Nscale and Aker will need to scale rather quickly. By our estimate, 20 megawatts is only enough for a little more than 10,500 of Nvidia's latest GPUs.

OpenAI hasn't said exactly which of Nvidia's GPUs will be deployed at the facility, but has said they'll feature direct-to-chip liquid cooling to maximize cooling efficiency, suggesting either Nvidia's Grace Blackwell or upcoming Vera Rubin rack systems will power the facility — the latter are set to make their debut next year.

Power for the facility will predominantly come from hydroelectric plants in the region, while excess heat captured from the liquid cooling loops will be made available for local enterprises, presumably for things like district heating.

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OpenAI won't be the Norwegian datacenter's only customer, just one of its first. Surplus capacity will be made available to users in the UK, Nordics, and Northern Europe. 

The ChatGPT maker says it will work with government officials to support their sovereign AI initiatives under its previously announced OpenAI for Countries program.

Stargate's Norwegian contingent marks OpenAI's move to piggyback off of foreign AI initiatives. Back in May, OpenAI announced Stargate UAE, which would eventually see the construction of a 1 gigawatt compute cluster in Abu Dhabi, with the first 200 megawatts of capacity slated to come online sometime in 2026.

The news also comes a week after OpenAI announced it'd talked its buddies at Oracle to supply Stargate with another 4.5 gigawatts of capacity. ®