Narvik is on its way to becoming one of Europe's most significant hubs for artificial intelligence. Nscale, which already operates an AI data center in the northern Norwegian city in collaboration with Microsoft, is now announcing a massive expansion – according to Digi.no, this involves an investment of approximately 13 billion Norwegian kroner and the purchase of 30,000 Nvidia Rubin graphics processors.
Next-generation AI chip for the Arctic
Nvidia Rubin is the platform that succeeds today's Blackwell architecture and is planned to be available from Nvidia's partners – including Microsoft – in the second half of 2026, according to Nvidia's own roadmap. The chips are named after astrophysicist Vera Rubin and are built on TSMC's 3nm process with HBM4 memory.
The performance improvements stated by Nvidia are significant: the Rubin GPU is expected to deliver 50 petaflops in FP4 precision, and the entire NVL144 system is estimated at 3.6 exaflops. Compared to the Blackwell generation, the Rubin platform is, according to the manufacturer, 3.5 times faster for training and five times faster for inference.
Why Narvik?
Narvik has long been attractive for data centers for several reasons: access to clean and affordable hydropower, a cool Arctic climate that reduces the need for artificial cooling, and good infrastructure. For energy-intensive AI workloads, this is a combination that provides lower operating costs and a better climate footprint than many European alternatives.
Narvik combines clean power, natural cooling, and stable infrastructure – a rare combination for energy-hungry AI hardware.
That Microsoft chooses to channel billions of kroner into this particular facility, through the Nscale partnership, signals that Northern Norway is no longer a periphery in global AI infrastructure – but rather a strategic core area.
Rubin: A “monster” platform according to analysts
Analysts at Bernstein, led by David Dai, referred to the Vera Rubin platform as «a monster» and emphasized that it will further strengthen Nvidia's already dominant position in the AI hardware market. Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang stated during CES 2026 that Rubin «comes at exactly the right time, as the demand for AI computing for both training and inference is skyrocketing».
It is worth noting that the Rubin chips are not yet commercially available – they are planned for launch in the second half of 2026. The fact that Nscale is already securing 30,000 units indicates that this is a significant pre-order, and that delivery agreements with Nvidia have already been concluded.
Microsoft's global AI initiative
The investment in Narvik is part of Microsoft's broad global expansion in AI infrastructure. The company reported revenue of 281.7 billion dollars for fiscal year 2025 – a growth of 15 percent. CEO Satya Nadella stated in January 2026 that Microsoft has already built an AI business larger than many of the company's historical core franchises.
That such a large part of this initiative is now materializing on Norwegian soil is striking – and potentially very valuable for the Norwegian technology sector and job market.
What happens next?
The next generation, Rubin Ultra, is planned for the second half of 2027 and is set to double performance further. If Narvik's facility can be scaled to accommodate that generation as well, the Northern Norwegian data center could become even more central to Microsoft's global AI infrastructure.
Currently, Digi.no has reported on this expansion, and neither Microsoft, Nscale, nor Nvidia have published official press releases providing further details on the timeline, number of jobs, or specific capacity at the facility. 24AI is following the case.