OpenAI has abandoned plans to rent compute capacity directly from a Norwegian data center, days after confirming it was scrapping a similar project in the UK.
Microsoft Taking on additional compute already scheduled for OpenAI as planned 230MW “Stargate Norway” facility in Narvik. A spokesperson for the company told CNBC that OpenAI is now in discussions to rent capacity from Microsoft.
The AI company said it had the opportunity to become an “early offtaker” in the data center in 2025, which was deployed by OpenAI under the umbrella of its “Stargate” infrastructure project and was being built by UK AI cloud startup Enscale.
A source with direct knowledge of the matter told CNBC that OpenAI was discussing renting about half the facility’s capacity.
After Enscale and OpenAI ultimately did not agree to an offtake deal, Microsoft stepped in to take the capacity, the source said. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that OpenAI did not conclude its data center offtake talks with Enscale.
An OpenAI spokesperson declined to comment on the amount of capacity rented as part of a potential offtake deal. The company told CNBC that it was in discussions to rent capacity from Microsoft, saying it made more financial sense for the company than coming under existing contracted spending.
“We are moving forward with our plans in Norway,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC. “Microsoft is an important partner in our network and we will work with them to expand access to computing in Norway, as we are already doing in other parts of the world.”
He cited CNBC’s October announcement that it had signed a contract to buy $250 billion of services from Microsoft’s cloud-computing division Azure.
Enscale announced Tuesday that Microsoft is expanding its agreement at the Narvik campus, adding more than 30,000 Nvidia Rubin GPUs to the deployment. In March, Enscale said it would support Microsoft in its deployment. nvidia’s The Vera Rubin Platform on sites in the UK, Norway and beyond.
“Expanding our work with Enscale in Narvik helps ensure Microsoft customers have access to advanced AI infrastructure as demand continues to grow across Europe,” John Tinter, president of business development and enterprise at Microsoft, said in a Tuesday statement.
OpenAI has tempered expectations for its spending plans due to the prospect of a potential IPO this year.
The company confirmed it had halted plans for its UK Stargate project last week, citing energy costs and the country’s regulatory environment. In March, OpenAI announced it was shutting down its video generation service Sora.
Funding continues to flow in for startups. In March OpenAI also announced that it had closed a record $122 billion funding round at a post-money valuation of $852 billion.
After announcing investments in AI infrastructure in 2025, OpenAI told investors in February it was targeting about $600 billion in total compute spending by 2030, following comments from CEO Sam Altman in November that the company would reach $1.4 trillion in infrastructure commitments over the next eight years.
