“We are concerned because we see our future growth will compete with the storage of cat videos.” This is an astonishing statement coming from an arms manufacturer, the Norwegian group Nammo, which denounces the financial times.
With the conflict in Ukraine, the demand for arms is currently exploding in Europe. Norway itself placed an order worth nearly €250 million in January with its national ammunition producer Nammo to replenish its ammunition stocks.
But while its order book darkens – its customers are especially looking for shells – its general director, Morten Brandtzaeg, explains that he cannot carry out his project to expand his factory in Raufoss, in the center of the country. Blame it on TikTok and its neighboring data storage center, which competes with it for electricity.
Electricity for TikTok
Power supplier Elvia recently informed the Nammo group, a Norwegian state-owned and Finnish-controlled company, that it will not be able to supply it with any more electricity needed for the expansion of its main production site. Because on the first-come-first-serve principle, your extra electricity production goes to TikTok.
The parent company of the Chinese social network, ByteDance, plans to build three new data storage centers in Raufoss. They are part of the “Clover Project”, a set of promises by TikTok to guarantee the security of the data of its 150 million European users.
“I do not exclude that it is not by pure coincidence that this activity is close to a defense company… I cannot exclude it,” estimates the head of Nammo, who suggests that it could be a deliberate strategy on the part of the Government China to block its munitions production.
Morten Brandtzaeg goes so far as to ask that his activity be included in a list of priority sectors for electricity: “For Europe, this is a great concern: critical industries must have access to energy,” insists the industrialist.
Like the other Nordic countries, Finland is a great place to build data centers, thanks to its climate that allows cooling at lower cost and, as explained by the financial timesto its “abundant and cheap” electricity.
Source: BFM TV
