Microsoft Secures a $6 Billion Agreement for Sustainable Energy-Driven AI Computing Infrastructure
In a significant move towards advancing artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Microsoft has entered into a $6.2 billion agreement with AI hyperscaler Nscale and industrial investment company Aker for a large-scale AI infrastructure project in Northern Norway. This joint venture, named "Stargate Norway," aims to deliver sustainable AI infrastructure for all of Europe.
The project, located in Narvik, positions Norway as a launchpad for Europe's sovereign cloud. The choice of location was strategic, taking advantage of Narvik's abundant hydropower, low local electricity demand, cool climate, and established industrial infrastructure. This energy-efficient setup aligns with the project's goal to provide secure, scalable, and energy-efficient infrastructure for AI workloads across Europe.
Jon Tinter, President of Business Development and Ventures for Microsoft, expressed excitement about the new project, stating it will provide the latest and most advanced AI services from Microsoft. Øyvind Eriksen, President & CEO of Aker, echoed this sentiment, stating that the agreement with Microsoft underscores Norway's role in enabling sovereign AI infrastructure.
The goal of Stargate Norway is to launch a major AI infrastructure project in Norway, targeting a deployment of 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs by the end of 2026. This ambitious target underscores the project's commitment to meeting the exponentially growing demand for efficient, scalable, and sustainable AI compute power.
In line with its sustainability goals, Microsoft has launched a new supplier decarbonization team focused on tackling emissions from cloud and AI operations. The company has also unveiled a series of measures to help address its value chain emissions footprint, including a policy for some key suppliers to use 100% carbon-free electricity.
The project will be powered entirely by renewable energy, further underscoring Microsoft's commitment to sustainability. The President and CEO of Nscale, the company partnering with Microsoft on the AI infrastructure project in Norway, is Josh Payne.
Earlier this year, Microsoft's Chief Sustainability Officer Melanie Nakagawa acknowledged that the rapid growth of AI has created challenges for the company's sustainability goals. However, with projects like Stargate Norway, Microsoft is taking strides towards meeting these challenges, aiming to become carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030, and to protect more land than it uses by that date.
The contract for the project will be delivered in staged deployments beginning in 2026. This agreement positions Norway as stepping into a new era of value creation, digital, secure, and globally relevant. The project is expected to have a significant impact on the European AI landscape, providing secure, scalable, and energy-efficient infrastructure for AI workloads.
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