Has another OpenAI Stargate project hit the rocks?

One week after announcing it’s putting its UK Stargate plans on ice, another facility that was expected to rent capacity to OpenAI has instead found itself an alternative customer.

According to an announcement from neocloud provider Nscale, which owns both the data centers in question, it will add more than 30,000 Nvidia Rubin GPUs to its 230MW campus in Narvik, northern Norway. These will then be rented by Microsoft, starting in 2027.

This is a far cry from the original plans for the data center, however.

In July 2025, Nscale, OpenAI, and Aker announced they would be creating the first AI gigafactory in Europe and the first European facility in the OpenAI for Countries program, in the form of Stargate Norway.

It was reported at the time that there would be an initial 100,000 Nvidia Rubin GPUs installed by the end of 2026 for the project, with an initial 230MW of capacity. This was anticipated to scale to 520MW over time with the numbers of GPUs also increasing.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said: “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 with clean, affordable energy, ideal climate, and great partners in Nscale and Aker. Stargate Norway will help provide the compute power to drive the next wave of AI breakthroughs and economic progress for Europe, in Europe.”

A statement from OpenAI to ITPro today, however, indicated that OpenAI’s involvement is rather less direct than it appeared in July.

An OpenAI spokesperson told this publication: “We are moving ahead with our plans in Norway. Microsoft is an important partner in our network and we will work with them to access compute in Norway just as we already do in other parts of the world.”

Microsoft’s involvement wasn’t mentioned in the original Stargate Norway announcement, however, and there have been other changes in the set-up, too. In March 2026 it was announced Aker and Nscale would be rolling up the joint venture that established the Narvik facility fully into the neocloud provider. At the same time, Aker became the largest shareholder in Nscale.

The news that OpenAI won’t be directly renting capacity from Nscale in Norway – with the Stargate Norway branding seemingly being dropped at the same time – comes only one week after a similar move in the UK.

On 9 April, a spokesperson told ITPro that it was pausing its Stargate UK plans – which also revolved around renting Nvidia GPUs from Nscale – due to the regulatory environment and energy prices in the country. OpenAI declined to comment on whether similar considerations are in play with Stargate Norway, although energy prices are notably lower in the nordics.

In the meantime, Nscale may have found another tenant for the London facility. According to Bloomberg, Google will rent the capacity left open by OpenAI’s decision to put the brakes on its investment.