The problem is simple: Europe doesn't have enough power for its data centers.
Dublin stopped approving new builds in 2022. Amsterdam introduced a moratorium. Frankfurt is running out of grid capacity. London's costs keep climbing. The established data center markets in Europe are hitting a wall, and AI is making it worse.
Training a large language model takes 50 to 100 MW of continuous power for months. That kind of demand doesn't fit in a city where the grid is already fighting over the last megawatt. And it's not just AI. Cloud migration, streaming, IoT, autonomous vehicles: every year the world generates more data and needs more compute to process it.
The companies that will win this cycle are the ones that can get power. Not in five years. Now.
Why the Nordics
Norway and Sweden have something rare in Europe: surplus energy. Norway produces almost all its electricity from hydropower. Sweden mixes hydro with nuclear and wind. Both countries export electricity to the rest of Europe because they produce more than they consume.
For a data center operator, this means three things:
First, cheap power. Norwegian hydroelectric producers sell at rates that mainland European operators can only dream of. We target long-term PPAs below 4 cents per kWh. In Germany or the UK, operators pay two to three times that.
Second, natural cooling. Nordic temperatures stay cold enough year-round that air cooling works without chillers. This pushes our PUE below 1.15, compared to 1.3-1.5 for a typical European facility. Lower PUE means less wasted energy and lower operating costs.
Third, grid availability. While Western European grids are congested, Northern Norway and Sweden still have capacity. Grid connections that would take years in Frankfurt or Dublin can be secured in months.
The regulatory environment
Norway and Sweden have clear, predictable regulatory frameworks. Data center operations are legal, understood by local authorities, and supported by economic development agencies. There's no ambiguity about permitting for energy-intensive compute.
Compare that with the regulatory uncertainty around data centers in Ireland, or the constant threat of new taxes on energy-intensive industries in mainland Europe. In the Nordics, the rules are clear, and they've been stable for years.
Renewable by default
This is a structural advantage for investor conversations. When your power comes from a 50-year-old hydroelectric dam in a Norwegian fjord, you don't need to buy carbon offsets or explain away your energy mix. The sustainability story writes itself.
For institutional investors with ESG mandates, this matters. A data center powered by Nordic hydro checks every box without creative accounting.
What we're doing about it
Pure Core is building a pipeline of 100+ MW across multiple Nordic sites. Our first facilities are in Northern Norway, with expansion planned into Sweden and Finland.
We're not building hyperscale campuses. We're deploying modular, right-sized facilities at 5-50 MW per site. Each one is powered by local hydro, connected to the grid, and operational within months, not years.
Our model is simple: secure the power first, build the facility second, fill it third. That order matters. Power is the scarce resource. Everything else is execution.