APREX · EST. 2026
Norway has oil, gas, and the world's largest sovereign wealth fund. But when it comes to artificial intelligence — the technology that analysts say will reshape the entire global economy — there are serious questions about whether we are missing the boat.
E24 Tech recently highlighted whether Norway is heading towards technological irrelevance, and the subsequent figures give cause for concern.
Norwegian Ambition Meets Nordic Reality
The Norwegian government has promised to increase research on AI and digital technology by at least one billion kroner over five years, and six national AI research centers are scheduled to open in 2025. As of May 2024, the Research Council has funded 470 ongoing AI projects with a total value of 2.2 billion kroner.
That sounds like a lot — until you compare it with what's happening in Sweden.
In February 2026, Swedish founders criticized their government's annual investment of $46 million as completely insufficient — comparing it to a single Series A round for a startup. According to them, it's like “entering a bicycle race when everyone else is driving Formula 1,” given that global AI laboratories are now investing hundreds of billions.
If that's the situation in Sweden, Norway's state-budgeted AI initiative is even more modest.
The Oil Fund Tests, But Still Fails Too Much
Norway's strongest card in the AI context is perhaps still the Government Pension Fund Global — with its $2.1 trillion, the world's largest sovereign wealth fund. The fund's CEO, Nicolai Tangen, has been clear that AI yields results, stating that investments of “millions” have already generated “billions” in profit. Around half of the fund's 700 employees currently use AI tools.
However, the fund itself emphasizes that the technology still fails too often to be used without human control in investment decisions. This is a sober and responsible approach — but it also illustrates the gap between cautious Norwegian pragmatism and the otherwise aggressive pace of globalization.
“Investing tens of millions in a national language model is like entering a bicycle race when competitors are driving Formula 1.” — Swedish AI founders on the Nordics' position, February 2026
Stargate Norway: Hope from Narvik — But Who Owns It?
The most spectacular Norwegian AI project in 2025 is barely Norwegian at all. OpenAI, in collaboration with Nscale and Aker, announced “Stargate Norway” in Narvik — a facility that by the end of 2026 will house 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs and be powered exclusively by renewable energy. It is described as one of Europe's most ambitious AI infrastructure investments.
This is undoubtedly positive for Norway as a location and for green energy export. But strategic control lies with American and international actors — not with Norwegian authorities or Norwegian companies.
Companies Lag Behind — And Gain Little
At the corporate level, the picture is mixed. In 2023, 30 percent of Norwegian businesses regularly used at least one AI tool, up from 23 percent the previous year. Estimates suggest that increased AI use could free up 748 billion kroner for the Norwegian economy by 2030 — but that is a potential, not a guarantee.
A structural problem is that Nordic companies — including Norwegian ones — spend 40–50 percent of their AI investments on off-the-shelf productivity tools. That's not where the money is made. Global leaders in AI adoption allocate only 8–11 percent to such tools, opting instead for transformative end-to-end solutions that yield higher returns.
The result: Only one-third of Nordic companies see concrete returns from their best AI initiatives within two years. Among other European companies, the proportion is almost half.
What Does Norway Need to Do to Avoid Irrelevance?
The criticism from E24 Tech is not unfounded. There is a structural gap between Norwegian capital and Norwegian AI ambitions. Norway has the money — but is not spending it on strategic AI development at a pace that matches global competition.
It's important to nuance the picture: An extra billion in research is not nothing, and Stargate Norway shows that Norway is attractive as an infrastructure country. But attractiveness for others' investments is not the same as national AI capacity and independence.
If Norway is to avoid becoming technologically irrelevant — as E24 Tech warns — the level of ambition must be raised considerably, not just in rhetoric, but in actual budget priorities and national strategy for the next five to ten years.