The Russian invasion of February last year was not only an attack on Ukraine, but also on the West and everything it stands for – at least that’s how it has been felt in many countries ever since. Reason for many European countries to do everything possible to provide Kyiv with as many weapon systems, ammunition and other support as possible. Norway also had that intention, but ammunition production there is now hindered by a data center of the Chinese social media company TikTok.
How this is possible: the factory of ammunition company Nammo is located about 120 kilometers north of Oslo, where a large TikTok data center is currently being built. The latter uses so much electricity that there is not enough power left to keep ammunition production running at full speed. “We are concerned that our future growth is threatened by the storage of cat videos,” said Nammo CEO Morten Brandtzæg. the Financial Times.
According to Brandtzæg, the demand for ammunition for artillery has increased fifteenfold since the war broke out in Ukraine. He estimates that European countries will need to invest around €2 billion in new ammunition factories to meet Ukrainian demand. Norway is not a member of the European Union, but it is a member of NATO. Oslo has been an ally of Kyiv since the Russian invasion. The Scandinavian country shares a 200 kilometer long border with Russia. Partly owned by the state, Nammo is one of the largest munitions manufacturers in Europe.
Irony
However, Nammo is unable to increase ammunition production because a nearby TikTok data center is consuming a huge amount of electricity. Ironically, the construction of that data center is an attempt by the social media company to allay concerns from European governments. In the United States and the EU, there has been much criticism of the app, whose data could be read by the Chinese government. In several countries, including the Netherlands, civil servants and politicians are already prohibited or strongly discouraged from installing the app on a work phone.
Then we will store the data locally, TikTok thought, and the company started building three storage centers in Norway. That should be out this year, a fourth and fifth may be built in 2024. Scandinavian countries are popular destinations for data centers because power is often cheap and cooling costs are lower due to the colder climate.
Norwegian energy company Elvia confirmed to FT that the power grid has been full since TikTok settled in the region. Any expansion of the power capacity would take a lot of time and Elvia supplies according to a ‘first come, first served’ system. TikTok refused to respond to FT on the matter. The European Commission estimates that by 2030, data centers will use 3.2 percent of all electricity in the EU.