Microsoft rents Stargate capacity
Microsoft agreed to rent data‑centre capacity in Norway that had been intended for OpenAI and will deploy roughly 30,000 Nvidia GPUs there while also expanding operations in Wyoming, shifting compute capacity between major providers. (bloomberg.com) (seekingalpha.com)
Microsoft has taken over Norway data-center capacity that had been lined up for OpenAI’s Stargate project. (bloomberg.com) Nscale said on April 14 that Microsoft expanded its Norway agreement to add more than 30,000 Nvidia Rubin graphics processing units at its Narvik campus, with delivery planned in 2027. The company said the new deal builds on Microsoft’s earlier $6.2 billion commitment at the same site. (nscale.com) The site is a 230-megawatt facility in Kvandal, outside Narvik in northern Norway, and it had previously been promoted as OpenAI’s “Stargate Norway” location. OpenAI said in July 2025 that the project was its first European artificial-intelligence data-center initiative and was planned around 100,000 Nvidia graphics processing units. (openai.com) (nscale.com) OpenAI never finalized the offtake deal for the Norway site, according to CNBC, which reported that the company had discussed renting about half the facility’s capacity. Microsoft stepped in after Nscale and OpenAI failed to reach terms, according to people CNBC cited with direct knowledge of the talks. (cnbc.com) The switch shows how artificial-intelligence companies are competing for the same scarce inputs: power, land and advanced chips. Nscale said the Narvik campus will be powered by renewable energy, and Data Center Dynamics reported that the original buildout could expand beyond the initial 230 megawatts. (nscale.com) (datacenterdynamics.com) Microsoft is also adding land in the United States. The company said on April 14 that it intends to buy about 3,200 acres in Cheyenne, Wyoming, to expand a datacenter footprint it has maintained there since 2012. (news.microsoft.com) Microsoft said the Wyoming expansion includes 200 acres in Bison Business Park and another 3,000 acres in southeast Cheyenne. The company said it will work with Black Hills Energy on infrastructure upgrades and aims to limit water use at the site. (news.microsoft.com) (datacenterdynamics.com) The Norway move also lands in the middle of a changing Microsoft-OpenAI relationship. Microsoft remains OpenAI’s largest outside backer, but OpenAI has been trying to line up more computing suppliers as it pushes Stargate and other infrastructure projects beyond Microsoft’s cloud. (openai.com) (cnbc.com) For now, the immediate result is simple: capacity once marketed for OpenAI in Norway is now reserved for Microsoft, while Microsoft is enlarging its own footprint from the Arctic Circle to Wyoming. (bloomberg.com) (news.microsoft.com)
