Norwegian challenger Fossefall builds AI data centre in Fyresdal: value creation stays in European hands

Norwegian data centre company Fossefall has started building its first AI data centre in Norway. The facility is going up in Fyresdal, a municipality in Telemark, and the company describes it as an "AI factory" (KI-fabrikk). The headline frames the project as keeping value creation in European hands.

The site is about 100 metres from a data centre that the American company Edgeconnex is already building in the same municipality. The two projects differ greatly in scale. Edgeconnex has planned a 365 megawatt development, while Fossefall's data centre will have a capacity of just over 9 megawatts, which the report describes as a more modest ambition.

The mayor of Fyresdal believes the push to attract data centres will change the municipality permanently. The report does not detail what changes he expects.

The available text is only the opening of the piece, so it does not cover Fossefall's investment size, customers, power supply, timeline or ownership. What it establishes is that a Norwegian challenger is entering a market in which a large US operator is already building next door, and that a small Telemark municipality is becoming a notable location for data centre development in Norway.