Table of Contents
atNorth told RCRTech that NOR01 is specifically designed to house data intensive workloads like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and private and public cloud platforms
In sum – what to know:
AI demand grows – atNorth said growing demand for AI, machine learning, HPC and cloud workloads is driving the need for large-scale digital infrastructure, helping justify the planned 350MW NOR01 campus in Norway.
Density requirements rise – The facility is being designed to support rack densities of up to 1MW, targeting next-generation AI training, inference and HPC applications that require advanced cooling and power delivery.
Power planning ahead – With power availability expected in 2028, atNorth said its land banking strategy and modular design approach help align customer demand with future grid capacity.
atNorth said growing demand for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads is underpinning plans for its proposed 350MW data center campus in Norway, as operators race to build infrastructure capable of supporting increasingly power-hungry applications.
The Nordic data center provider recently announced plans for NOR01, a new campus in Haugaland, Norway. The site is expected to deliver 120MW in its initial phases before scaling to 350MW over time. Power availability is projected for 2028 and will be supported by new transmission infrastructure, including substations being developed by Statnett and regional grid operator Fagne.
Speaking with RCRTech, Fredrik Jansson, chief strategy and marketing officer at atNorth, said demand for AI-focused infrastructure continues to accelerate globally.
“NOR01 is specifically designed to house data intensive workloads like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and private and public cloud platforms. There is a huge demand for digital infrastructure that can cope with these kinds of high-density workloads and the global data center industry is scaling at speed as a result.”
Jansson said the Nordic region offers advantages that are becoming increasingly important as other markets face power and infrastructure constraints.
“Many regions are slowed by ageing power and connectivity infrastructure delaying time to market significantly. The Nordics, in comparison, have an abundance of renewable energy supported by robust power networks, in addition to excellent connectivity and a naturally cool climate that enables energy efficient cooling techniques – making it an ideal location for data center development,” he said.
The company also expects changing enterprise workload strategies to support demand for capacity in the region. “At the same time, there is a growing understanding that it is often unnecessary or even detrimental to house workloads on-prem or just at the local data center facility. More and more businesses are segmenting their workloads and moving them to sites that suit their needs better, from a processing, cost or environmental perspective,” he added.
A key feature of the planned campus is support for rack densities of up to 1MW, significantly above traditional colocation deployments. According to Jansson, demand is being driven by AI and HPC applications that require extreme compute concentration.
“High-density deployments up to 1MW per rack are being driven primarily by next-generation AI and high performance computing workloads that demand extreme compute concentration. These include large-scale foundation model training, GPU-accelerated HPC simulations, generative AI inference clusters, and scientific modelling workloads such as climate modeling, genomics, and advanced engineering.”
He added that these workloads require substantial power, advanced cooling systems and low-latency connectivity, creating challenges for many older facilities.
While NOR01’s power supply depends on infrastructure scheduled to become available in 2028, atNorth said it plans well in advance through its land acquisition strategy.
“atNorth has been forward thinking in this regard and has an extensive land banking strategy. This means that land is secured in advance of immediate demand so that there is time to work with power and connectivity providers,” the executive said.
Jansson also noted that the company’s modular data center design enables rapid deployment once supporting infrastructure is in place. “atNorth also has an innovative but simple, modular data center design so the construction side of data center development is very swift.”
