Microsoft will deploy 30,000 Nvidia Vera Rubin chips at an Arctic Circle data center in Norway that OpenAI originally planned for its Stargate initiative, marking the second time this month the Windows maker has taken over AI infrastructure from its partner. The deal with neocloud provider Nscale adds capacity at a campus in Narvik, Norway, building on Microsoft's existing $6.2 billion commitment at the same site.
OpenAI had been negotiating for the Norwegian facility but failed to reach an agreement with Nscale, according to people familiar with the discussions.
OpenAI had marketed the project as "Stargate Norway" last year, referencing its planned $500 billion joint venture investment in U.S. infrastructure to power advanced AI systems. The company told investors in February it would spend about $600 billion on compute infrastructure by 2030, a more specific figure than the $1.4 trillion in broader infrastructure commitments previously discussed.
Last week, OpenAI paused its analogous Stargate effort at another Nscale-developed site in the United Kingdom, citing high energy costs and regulatory challenges. An OpenAI spokesperson said the company continues to explore an agreement for capacity in Norway and is working with multiple partners to build infrastructure.
"I've always said we'd love to bring Stargate to Europe if the conditions are right, and we think we've found that in Narvik," OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said in a statement last July.
Microsoft has accelerated deals with neocloud providers like Nscale as it races to bring data centers online to meet surging demand for AI compute. Last month, Microsoft announced it would take over a project in Texas that was originally being developed for OpenAI and Oracle Corp.
Nscale has secured Google as another client for a separate data center facility in West London running Nvidia's Grace Blackwell chips, according to a person familiar with that agreement.
