Microsoft takes Stargate site
Microsoft has taken over the Stargate data‑centre project in Norway that OpenAI had discussed using after OpenAI did not finalise an agreement with Nscale, signalling another cloud provider stepping in on strategic capacity. The move was reported by Indian outlets citing the project transition and highlights how providers can acquire capacity when rivals hesitate. (telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com)
Microsoft has taken over AI data-center capacity in Narvik, Norway, that OpenAI had discussed using for its Stargate project. (cnbc.com) OpenAI dropped plans to rent compute directly from United Kingdom cloud company Nscale at the site, and Microsoft stepped in for the spare capacity, CNBC reported on April 15. OpenAI said it is now discussing renting that compute from Microsoft instead. (cnbc.com) Nscale said Microsoft is expanding its Narvik agreement by more than 30,000 Nvidia Vera Rubin graphics processing units, or GPUs, the specialized chips used to train and run artificial intelligence models. Microsoft had already committed $6.2 billion at the same campus under a five-year deal announced in September 2025. (cnbc.com) (datacenterdynamics.com) The Norway site was announced on July 31, 2025, by Nscale, Aker, and OpenAI as “Stargate Norway,” a project targeting 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by the end of 2026. The partners said the facility near Narvik would start with 230 megawatts of capacity and could later add another 290 megawatts. (nscale.com) Narvik sits above the Arctic Circle, where hydropower, cool weather, and relatively low local electricity demand have made northern Norway attractive for large server farms. Nscale said those conditions would let the project run entirely on renewable energy and at power prices below the European average. (nscale.com) The shift comes six days after OpenAI said it had paused its Stargate project in the United Kingdom over energy costs and regulation. CNBC reported that OpenAI is tempering infrastructure spending as a potential initial public offering approaches this year. (cnbc.com 1) (cnbc.com 2) OpenAI’s cloud relationship with Microsoft still runs deep even as the two companies have loosened some exclusivity. In October 2025, OpenAI said it had agreed to buy an incremental $250 billion of Azure services, while Microsoft gave up its right of first refusal to be OpenAI’s compute provider. (openai.com) That leaves Norway looking less like a canceled project than a reassigned one: the power, land, and chips are still being lined up in Narvik, but Microsoft now holds the direct deal that OpenAI once explored. (cnbc.com)
