内容来源：https://www.wired.com/story/ai-supremacy-data-center-expansion-arctic-circle/

内容总结：

随着全球人工智能浪潮席卷，北欧正迅速崛起为欧洲数据中心建设的新热土。在瑞典博朗厄，一座由旧造纸厂改造的大型数据中心已破土动工。项目方EcoDataCenter的CEO彼得·米歇尔森表示：“这里曾生产报纸时代的原料——纸张；如今，博朗厄将生产人工智能与下一代信息时代的原料。”

咨询公司高纬环球的报告显示，北欧地区（挪威、瑞典、芬兰、丹麦、冰岛）目前在建或规划的数据中心超过50个，增速居欧洲之首。这股建设热潮直接源于训练和运行AI模型所需的庞大算力需求，以及欧洲其他地区面临的场地与能源短缺困境。

去年，OpenAI宣布将在北极圈内挪威小镇部署10万块GPU，微软紧随其后。近期，法国AI实验室Mistral宣布将租用博朗厄价值14亿美元的基础设施；运营商atNorth计划在瑞典新建超大规模设施；另有开发商的项目将使芬兰现有数据中心容量翻倍以上。

与以往为降低延迟而聚集在大都市不同，当前AI数据中心的核心诉求是“充足的电力与快速接入”。北欧凭借丰富的可再生水电与风电、低廉的电价、凉爽的气候（降低散热能耗）以及充裕的土地资源，成为理想选址。专门提供大规模GPU集群的“新型云”企业是此轮增长的主力，因其AI业务对延迟不敏感，可充分利用北欧偏远地区的能源优势。

数据中心热潮正在改变北欧偏远地区的经济面貌。昔日依赖采矿、木材、造纸业的城镇迎来新机遇，规划用于数据中心的林地价格已达普通林地的4至9倍。地方政府迫切希望借此重振乡村经济。

然而，这片愿景能否实现仍存变数。有分析指出，部分超大规模运营商正在“圈占”优质地块以备未来之需，并非立即开发，目的也包括阻止竞争对手获取资源。高纬环球专家指出，西欧可用空间持续缩减，能源短缺已成为最主要的制约因素，正驱动产业全面向北欧转移。

眼下，北欧几乎每周都有新的数据中心项目宣布。这片土地能否真正成为AI时代的“电力湾区”，仍有待时间检验。

中文翻译：

在瑞典博朗厄镇穿城而过的河岸边，一座规模庞大的新数据中心正在建设中。这片土地曾是一家造纸厂的所在地。当开发商EcoDataCenter于去年九月破土动工时，其首席执行官彼得·米歇尔森宣称："这里曾生产纸张——报纸信息时代的原材料。如今，博朗厄将为人工智能和下一个信息时代生产原材料。"

随着适用于训练和运行人工智能模型的数据中心需求激增，北欧地区（包括挪威、瑞典、芬兰、丹麦和冰岛）目前正在建设或即将开发的数据中心已超过50座，博朗厄设施正是其中之一。咨询公司世邦魏理仕的研究显示，欧洲其他地区的数据中心容量增速无一能及此地。

去年，OpenAI宣布将在北极圈内挪威一座峡湾小镇部署10万个GPU。随后微软也接踵而至。仅过去几周内，法国人工智能实验室Mistral表示将租用博朗厄价值14亿美元的基础设施；数据中心运营商atNorth宣布了在瑞典其他地区建设巨型设施的计划；另一家开发商则规划了一个项目，若建成将使芬兰现有数据中心容量翻倍有余。

这场建设热潮的部分动因，在于欧洲严重缺乏面积足够大且能源供应充足、能够支持人工智能工作负载的场地。世邦魏理仕数据中心研究总监凯文·雷斯蒂沃指出："当前存在巨大的需求，但在整个欧洲，满足这些需求正日益成为难题。电力正变得越来越珍贵，且供不应求。"在此背景下，他特别强调："挪威已绝对爆发成为数据中心温床。"

以往，欧洲数据中心往往聚集在大都市和金融中心周围——尤其是法兰克福、伦敦、阿姆斯特丹、巴黎和都柏林。为支持算法交易等对纳秒级延迟敏感的应用，云服务商需要尽可能降低数据传输延迟。按照这些标准，北欧国家曾缺乏吸引力。

这一局面在2023年夏季开始转变，此时距ChatGPT取得突破性成功已有六个月。北欧政府机构开始接到数据中心开发商的热切咨询。芬兰商务促进局的数据中心专家尤尼·萨洛宁表示："出现了明显变化。如今，电力资源及快速获取电力的能力已成为首要标准。他们正在寻找能快速进入市场的场地。"

北欧数据中心产业的蓬勃发展恰逢"新云"公司的兴起，这类专业云服务商通过提供大规模GPU集群的访问权限盈利。由于它们仅服务于对延迟不敏感的人工智能工作负载，新云公司得以在该地区偏远角落——甚至远至北极圈内——自由建立数据中心。世邦魏理仕研究发现，北欧数据中心容量的增长主要来自这类新云公司。

对这类新型开发商而言，北欧国家展现出独特优势：这里既有充足的土地和能源供应，电价又位居欧洲最低水平。同时，丰富的可再生水电与风电资源，以及有助于降低硬件冷却能耗的凉爽气候，使数据中心运营商更容易达到欧盟严格的排放标准。

新云公司Nscale的首席商务官菲利普·萨克斯指出："选址于此几乎无需妥协，却能获得巨大收益：充沛的绿色连续电力，且几乎没有工业竞争需求。当你计划建造超大规模、类似超级工厂的计算集群时，这里无疑是欧洲乃至全球的最佳选址。"该公司运营着OpenAI和微软租用的挪威站点。

数据中心运营商的需求正在推高北欧偏远地区的土地价格，即使当地采矿、木材和造纸等传统产业已然凋零。萨洛宁透露："具体情况各有不同，但即将规划为数据中心用地的森林土地价值，目前是该地区普通林地的4至9倍。"人们期待人工智能数据中心的到来能重振这些衰退的乡村经济。"市政当局对投资非常迫切。"萨洛宁坦言。

这种完美共生的愿景——北欧为高耗能但对延迟不敏感的人工智能数据中心提供理想家园，而这些数据中心反过来重振乡村经济——取决于规划中的设施能否真正落地。

雷斯蒂沃指出，部分超大规模数据中心运营商正在囤积合适场地以备未来之需，并无立即开发的打算。"他们目前不需要已签约的全部电力，但认为未来会需要。当然，他们更希望阻止竞争对手获得这些资源。"

尽管如此，随着西欧可用空间持续缩减，北欧几乎每周都有新建数据中心的计划公布。世邦魏理仕欧洲、中东和非洲数据中心解决方案负责人安德鲁·杰伊表示，在其他地区，能源短缺是"当前最大的制约因素，几乎主导着所有决策"。

英文来源：

On the bank of the river that runs through the Swedish town of Borlänge, construction is underway on a sprawling new data center. The site previously housed a paper mill. When the developer, EcoDataCenter, broke ground in September, its CEO Peter Michelson declared, “The facility once produced paper, the raw material of the newspaper information age. Now, Borlänge will produce the raw material for AI and the next information age.”
The Borlänge facility is one of more than 50 currently under construction or soon to be developed across the Nordics—the region made up of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland—as demand escalates for data centers suitable for training and running AI models. Nowhere else in Europe is data center capacity growing faster, according to research by consulting firm CBRE.
Last year, OpenAI announced it would deploy 100,000 GPUs in a tiny Norwegian fjord town in the Arctic Circle. Then Microsoft followed suit. In the last few weeks alone, French AI lab Mistral said it would lease $1.4 billion worth of infrastructure at Borlänge; data center operator atNorth announced plans for an enormous facility elsewhere in Sweden; and another developer outlined a project that would more than double Finland’s current data center capacity if completed.
The building frenzy is being spurred in part by an acute shortage of sites in Europe that are large enough and equipped with sufficient energy supply to support AI workloads.
“There’s an extraordinary amount of demand out there, but servicing that demand is increasingly an issue across Europe,” says Kevin Restivo, director of data center research at CBRE. “Power is an increasingly precious commodity, and there’s a scarcity of it.” Against that backdrop, he says, “Norway specifically has absolutely exploded as a data center hotbed.”
Previously, data centers in Europe tended to cluster around metropolitan and financial centers—particularly Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin. To support uses like algorithmic trading, where nanoseconds count, cloud companies needed a way to transport data with as little latency (or delay) as possible. Against those criteria, the Nordic countries were less attractive.
The picture began to shift in summer of 2023, six months after the breakout success of ChatGPT. Nordic government agencies began to field calls from eager data center developers. “There was a clear change,” says Jouni Salonen, a data center specialist at Business Finland, a Finnish government agency tasked with attracting trade and investment to the country. “Now, power—and quick access to power—is clearly the main criteria. They are looking for sites where they can get access to the market quickly.”
The growth in the Nordic data center industry has coincided with the emergence of neoclouds, a type of specialist cloud company that sells access to huge fleets of GPUs. Because they serve only AI workloads, which are not as latency-dependent, neoclouds are free to establish data centers in far-flung corners of the region—even as far north as the Arctic Circle. Neoclouds account for the majority of the data center capacity growth in Nordics, CBRE found.
To this new type of developer, the Nordic countries represent a unique proposition. There is both plenty of available land and energy, and power in the region is among the cheapest in Europe. Meanwhile, the glut of renewable hydropower and wind energy, and the cool climate—which reduces the amount of energy required to cool hardware—helps data center operators meet stringent EU emissions targets.
“You’re not really trading away much by locating there, but you’re gaining an enormous amount: abundant green contiguous power with little competing industrial demand for that power,” says Philippe Sachs, chief business officer at neocloud firm Nscale, which operates the Norway site where OpenAI and Microsoft lease space. “When you’re thinking about trying to build very, very large, giga-factory-style compute clusters, it’s far and away the best place to do it in Europe, if not the world.”
The demand among data center operators is propelling a surge in land prices even in remote areas of the Nordics, where heritage industries like mining, lumber, and paper have dried up. “It differs from case to case, but the value of forest land soon to be zoned for data center use is currently 4 to 9 times higher than normal forest land in the region,” says Salonen. The hope is that the arrival of AI data centers might revive those fading rural economies. “The municipalities are very anxious for investment,” says Salonen.
The vision of a flawless symbiosis—whereby the Nordics provide an ideal home to a breed of power-hungry but not latency-dependent AI data centers, which in turn reinvigorate rural economies—hinges on the proposed facilities actually coming to fruition.
Some hyperscale data center operators, Restivo asserts, are hoarding suitable sites in anticipation of future need, without an immediate intention to develop there. “They don’t need all the power they have contracted today, but they think they’ll need it,” he claims. “And they certainly want to keep it away from competitors.”
For now, though, as the available space in Western Europe continues to dwindle, plans for new data centers in the Nordics continue to be announced almost weekly. Elsewhere, the scarcity of energy is “far and away the biggest constraining factor,” says Andrew Jay, head of data center solutions EMEA at CBRE. “It’s driving pretty much everything.”