On April 15, news broke that Microsoft has inked a deal to lease data center capacity in Norway. This capacity was initially earmarked for OpenAI and was a key component of OpenAI's ambitious 'Stargate' project. Cloud infrastructure provider Nscale disclosed that Microsoft will lease 30,000 NVIDIA Vera Rubin chips from its facility situated within the Arctic Circle in Narvik, Norway. This move represents a significant expansion for Microsoft, building upon its existing $6.2 billion investment in the same campus. According to sources with inside knowledge of the situation, OpenAI had been in talks to utilize the campus's resources to power its AI workloads. However, they were unable to finalize an agreement with Nscale. Just last week, OpenAI made headlines by announcing the suspension of a comparable project in the UK, which was also developed by Nscale. The decision to halt the UK project was attributed to the exorbitant energy and regulatory expenses associated with operating in the UK. OpenAI's decision to suspend the UK project and its inability to secure a deal with Nscale in Norway suggest that the company is recalibrating its large-scale infrastructure strategies. An OpenAI spokesperson clarified that the company is still actively considering the possibility of reaching a capacity agreement in Norway and is collaborating with multiple partners to advance its infrastructure development.