Aker And Nscale To Build OpenAI’s Largest Data Center In Europe - 1

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Aker And Nscale To Build OpenAI’s Largest Data Center In Europe

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

Norway’s Aker ASA and the London-based infrastructure company Nscale Global Holdings announced on Thursday a new joint venture to build OpenAI’s largest artificial intelligence facility in Europe. The data center project, called Stargate Norway, will be located in Kvandal, in northern Norway. The companies aim to deploy 100,000 NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) by the end of 2026.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • Aker and Nscale will build OpenAI’s largest data center in Europe, powered entirely by renewable energy.
  • Stargate Norway will be located in Kvandal, just outside Narvik in northern Norway.
  • The facility aims to deploy 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs by the end of 2026.

According to Aker’s announcement , Stargate Norway will be powered by renewable energy and deliver 230MW of capacity. The companies plan to scale operations over the coming years and provide AI infrastructure for more companies, researchers, and communities across Norway and Europe.

“Stargate Norway will be designed to provide secure, scalable, and energy-efficient infrastructure for sovereign AI workloads across Europe, fully aligned with European regulatory frameworks,” states the document. “Stargate Norway is planned to deliver 230MW of capacity, with ambitions to expand by an additional 290MW – positioning it among the most significant AI infrastructure investments in Europe.”

The project has been launched under OpenAI’s “OpenAI for Countries” programme, and it will be the first AI infrastructure in Europe under the initiative. It will be jointly owned (50/50) by Aker and Nscale, and both parties have committed to 1 billion for the initial phase of the project.

According to CNBC , OpenAI will act as “off-taker,” meaning it will commit to purchasing the compute capacity provided by the facility. The companies aim to install 100,000 NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) by the end of 2026 to power large-scale AI models.

“Part of the purpose of this project is to partner with OpenAI and leverage European sovereign compute to release additional services and features to the European continent,” said Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale, in an interview with CNBC.

Aker also highlighted the advantages of the site’s location—just outside Narvik—noting its abundant hydropower, limited transmission capacity, and low local electricity demand. The cool climate and stable environmental conditions make Kvandal “an ideal location” for hosting large-scale AI infrastructure

The Stargate Project was initially launched in the United States in January in a joint venture including the White House and other investors such as SoftBank and Oracle in a $500 billion joint venture.

YouTube To Roll Out AI System To Identify Teen Users In The U.S. - 2

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YouTube To Roll Out AI System To Identify Teen Users In The U.S.

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

YouTube announced on Tuesday that it will extend its built-in protections to more teenage users in the United States. The company explained that it will roll out an AI-powered system to estimate users’ ages and deliver age-appropriate content.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • Youtube will roll out an AI-powered system to estimate users’ ages and deliver age-appropriate content.
  • The company will consider signals that will be processed by its machine learning tool “so that teens are treated as teens and adults as adults.”
  • Teen accounts will get special safeguards and won’t get personalized ads.

According to the official announcement , YouTube had previously introduced several tools to protect children, including the launch of YouTube Kids 10 years ago, and the development of supervised accounts for pre-teens and teens.

Now, the company will deploy an AI-powered tool that will estimate the user’s age through “signals” such as the types of videos watched, the longevity of the account, and the categories of the viewed content.

“Over the next few weeks, we’ll begin to roll out machine learning to a small set of users in the US to estimate their age, so that teens are treated as teens and adults as adults,” wrote James Beser, Director of Product Management at YouTube. “This technology will allow us to infer a user’s age and then use that signal, regardless of the birthday in the account, to deliver our age-appropriate product experiences and protections.”

If the system recognizes a teenager, age-appropriate measures will be applied to the account. This includes disabling personalized advertising, limiting repetitive views of certain types of content, and enabling digital wellbeing tools. Adult users who believe they have been incorrectly categorized can submit a government ID to verify their age.

YouTube said it has already tested the age-verification tools with good results in other markets, and that if the system remains successful in the U.S. it aims to expand it to more locations.

Other tech companies are also implementing different age-verification systems to protect users and comply with growing regulations imposed by governments on entertainment and social media platforms.

A few days ago, Reddit rolled out a new age verification system in the United Kingdom to prevent users under 18 from viewing mature content. Instagram also began testing an AI-powered age-verification system to restrict content and ensure a safer environment for children.