Aker finalizes Nscale investment, launches Narvik AI joint venture

Aker ASA has finalized its investment in Nscale Global Holdings Ltd.'s Series B financing round and completed a 50/50 joint venture in Narvik, Northern Norway, named Aker Nscale. This new entity will deliver secure, scalable, and energy-efficient infrastructure for sovereign AI workloads across Europe. Aker's direct ownership in Nscale is 9.3% on a fully diluted basis, and its 50% stake in Aker Nscale is convertible into additional Nscale shares at a future IPO.

Aker Nscale has secured strong commercial traction, including a five-year, multi-billion dollar off-take agreement with Microsoft and involvement in the Stargate Norway project with OpenAI. These partnerships address the accelerating demand for clean, sovereign AI compute capacity.

Kristian Røkke has been appointed chief executive officer of Aker Nscale, which will be headquartered at Fornebu, Norway, with operational teams in Narvik. Øyvind Eriksen, president and chief executive at Aker ASA, highlighted the move as realizing Narvik's potential and positioning Norway at the heart of a new industrial era.