Canadas «oljefond» bygger datasenter i Norge

Canadas federal pension fund, Oljefondet, has ventured into building data centers in Norway. CPP Investments, its Canadian counterpart, has heavily invested in data centers over recent years. Through a $1.6 billion investment in AtNorth, the fund is positioning itself as one of the largest players in the booming data center sector in Norway.

E24's review of Statnett's overview of actors claiming transmission capacity in Norway shows AtNorth has already reserved 442 megawatts of capacity and is waiting for an additional 230 megawatts. This totals over 672 megawatts. Only Nscale, Google, and Green Mountain have combined reserved or applied for more capacity for data centers.

The company has grand plans for Norway and aims to start construction of its first Norwegian data center in Tysvær before winter. AtNorth has secured 120 megawatts of capacity in Tysvær and has further secured 176 megawatts in Ringerike. The Canadian pension fund invested around $15 billion, or about 60% of the company, when it bought out AtNorth earlier this year.

The contrast with Canada's Oljefond is clear. While Oljefond announced a new asset strategy in late 2025 stating data centers would not be a significant part of its investment, Oljefond's asset manager Alexander Knapp told Bloomberg that they are comfortable watching the situation develop rather than making direct investments in private data centers.

AtNorth has reserved 442 megawatts in Norway and is waiting for an additional 230 megawatts. This totals over 672 megawatts. Only Nscale, Google, and Green Mountain have combined reserved or applied for more capacity for data centers. AtNorth has eight operational data centers in operation and several under development in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

The company started in Iceland in 2009 and opened its first data center outside Iceland in Stockholm towards the end of 2022. If asked in 2017 or 2018, Kristinsson would have said Norway would be the first country outside Iceland to establish itself in the data center sector, but Norway turned out to be the last of the Nordic countries.