A single hyperscale facility now draws as much electricity as 750 000 homes, and global capacity is growing 15 % annually, with ≈ US $170 billion in new development finance expected this year alone. Yet power-grid bottlenecks already push construction timelines into 2027+ and force operators to pre-lease land years in advance.
Investors, planners, and cities suddenly weigh megawatts above post-codes; brownfield malls, factories, and even whole regions are being re-priced around access to resilient energy, cooling, and fibre. This session unpacks the new logic: how AI-driven demand is recasting location strategy, capital flows, zoning, ESG metrics, and the very definition of “prime” real estate worldwide.
AI workloads are exploding, and hyperscalers are racing north in search of low-cost renewalable power, natural “free cooling,” and some of the continent’s most stable grids. Yet the Nordic edge runs deeper than latitude: policy-backed fibre corridors, heat-reuse mandates, and long-term PPAs are turning data centres into district-heating plants and virtual batteries. This debate probes the real upside—and the looming constraints—as Denmark’s offshore-wind pipelines, Finland’s small modular reactors, and Norway’s hydrogen pilots compete to keep pace with terawatt-hour demand. Provocatively, we ask: could Big Tech’s appetite for server racks become the very engine that finances tomorrow’s cheaper, zero-carbon baseload for everyone?
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Main Partners 2025
