Juan Pedro Tomás
Europe rises in AI compute race
The race to scale AI capacity is moving fast across Europe, with the U.K. and Norway emerging as new hubs and U.S. chipmakers drawing fresh bets from rivals. In Britain, Nscale has unveiled plans for a massive GPU rollout with Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI — including the U.K.’s largest AI supercomputer and the new Stargate UK platform to support OpenAI’s workloads. Across the North Sea, Microsoft has signed a $6.2 billion, five-year deal with Nscale and Aker to secure renewable-powered AI capacity in northern Norway, one of Europe’s biggest planned deployments. And in the U.S., Nvidia is investing $5 billion in Intel as part of a broader alliance to co-develop custom chips for data centers, PCs, and AI infrastructure. Taken together, these developments highlight how AI infrastructure is rapidly globalizing — pulling in new locations, new funding streams, and strategic alliances to meet surging demand for compute. More below!
Juan Pedro Tomas
Editor
RCRTech
AI Infrastructure Top 3
Nscale fuels UK AI: Nscale, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI have announced a major UK AI infrastructure commitment, including the country’s largest AI supercomputer and the launch of Stargate UK to support sovereign AI workloads.
Microsoft bets on Norway AI: Microsoft signed a $6.2 billion deal with Nscale and Aker to rent AI computing power in Norway, using a new renewable-powered data center that could scale to 520MW for global workloads.
Nvidia invests $5B in Intel: Nvidia is investing $5 billion in Intel and collaborating on AI and PC chips, pairing Intel’s x86 CPUs with Nvidia GPUs, signaling confidence in Intel’s role amid fierce competition.
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AI powerhouse systems launched: Huawei introduced new SuperPoDs and SuperClusters at its Huawei Connect event in Shanghai, including systems with over one million Ascend chips and a new interconnect protocol, aiming to address long-term AI computing challenges.
Switzerland’s new AI-5G hub: Nokia, Intel, Datwyler, and SIPBB have opened a private 5G and AI edge hub in Switzerland, giving startups and nonprofits access to testbed infrastructure for industrial innovation without upfront costs.
Equinix bets big on Chennai: Equinix launches CN1 in Chennai with $69 million investment, offering 800 cabinets in phase one and scalable to 4,250, boosting India’s digital infrastructure, AI growth and low-latency global connectivity.
Sweden pushes sovereign AI: Telia Cygate and Accenture partner to deliver sovereign AI in Sweden, combining secure data centers, networks and development expertise to move enterprises quickly from pilots to full-scale production of advanced AI.
Cooling the AI fabric: Arista designs liquid-cooled racks supporting 120kW and 32 AI fabric switches, removing fans to cut power use, improve reliability and enable scale-out networking in next-generation AI datacenters.
AI drives construction boom: Global data center construction market set to grow from $239 billion in 2025 to $428 billion in 2035 at 6% CAGR, driven by cloud, edge, and hyperscale investments.
Indonesia’s AI investment play: Indonesia’s INA sovereign wealth fund prioritizes digital infrastructure, AI in healthcare and renewables, forming global partnerships to attract co-investment while anchoring growth in data centers, subsea cables and sustainable energy projects.
Schneider taps Nvidia designs: Schneider Electric unveils integrated power and liquid cooling designs co-engineered with Nvidia, accelerating AI factory deployments with seamless OT/IT interoperability, higher rack densities and future-ready blueprints for advanced GPU clusters.
DOE fast-tracks AI energy : US Energy Department unveils Speed to Power to fast-track multi-gigawatt grid projects, ensuring reliable, affordable energy to fuel AI datacenters and secure America’s competitiveness in the global AI race.
Wisconsin lands AI megaproject: Microsoft commits $7 billion to Wisconsin with Fairwater, the world’s most powerful AI datacenter, creating jobs, sustainability gains and local innovation while housing hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs for frontier AI training.
