Microsoft is attempting to make its biggest-ever wager in the Nordic nation by investing in AI and cloud development in Sweden.

The top technology company in the world plans to invest 33.7 billion Swedish crowns, or US$3.2 billion, over the course of two years to develop infrastructure in an effort to take full use of the nation’s abundant supply of green energy. Microsoft’s presence in Sweden is strengthened with this deal, which adds 20,000 GPUs to its three data centers there.

According to a statement released on Monday, June 3rd, the corporation is also dedicated to teaching 250,000 people “essential AI skills.”

“This large investment reflects our belief in how much Sweden can benefit from AI,” comments Microsoft Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith. ” In addition to calling Sweden “one of the continent’s most innovative countries,” he said that the country will only stay that way if it employs artificial intelligence.

In the upcoming months, more announcements are anticipated.

Assisting Sweden in Winning The Worldwide AI Competition

The disruptive technology known as artificial intelligence (AI) has increased demand for cloud services globally. Consequently, major IT firms such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are beginning to pour billions of dollars into data center locations throughout Europe in an effort to spur innovation.

Particularly Microsoft has made significant investments in a number of the continent’s nations, notably the UK, Germany, and Spain.

As stated in April 2024, the IT giant has made additional international investments, investing US$1.7 billion in Indonesia’s cloud and AI future. Similar to Sweden, this effort aims to provide significant AI skilling initiatives, new infrastructure, and assistance for the expanding developer community.

In addition to some of its own chips, the corporation will use Nvidia’s quicker processors and, according to Reuters, semiconductors from AMD within Sweden. According to the company, it is dedicated to increasing the use of AI in the Nordic countries—Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway.

Businesses are eager to better support their complicated discoveries, which has resulted in an increase in demand for advanced chips due to the global AI competition. With the introduction of a more extensive National Technology Strategy (NTS) at the beginning of 2024 to increase its corporate competitiveness abroad, Sweden is specifically working to increase the usage of AI domestically.

Advancing Environmentally Friendly Technology

The sustainability of the Nordic region is one of the reasons tech businesses have found it so appealing. The nations are rich in renewable energy sources, such as hydropower.

Therefore, in the coming ten years, businesses that run data centers hope to take advantage of low-cost electricity to fuel more environmentally conscious projects.

Microsoft is making investments in renewable energy and has acquired around 1,000 MW of renewable energy in Sweden in light of this.

Over the next few years, Microsoft intends to train thousands of Swedes in AI capabilities for use in organizations, schools, colleges, and the public sector, in addition to harnessing clean energy. This program is comparable to ones that Microsoft is presently running in a number of other nations, such as India, where the company has pledged to teach over two million individuals about artificial intelligence by the year 2025.

“AI is a technological revolution that ought to be viewed as a multiplier or igniter,” states Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. “It is a component of our plan moving forward when we transition into a new investment phase following our successful battle against inflation.”