STOCKHOLM: Microsoft said on Monday it will invest 33.7 billion kronor ($3.2 billion) over two years in cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Sweden, its largest investment in the country.
The group said it plans to train 250,000 people by 2027 to boost their AI knowledge and capabilities, as well as increase the capacity of its three data centers in the country.
The “largest investment in Microsoft's history in Sweden” will enable the Scandinavian nation to “build a world-leading AI data center infrastructure,” the company's president and vice chairman Brad Smith said at a press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christersson.
“We've been able to achieve this in large part because of Sweden's forward-thinking energy policy and abundant access to green energy, whether carbon-free or renewable,” Smith said.
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The US group has announced similar AI investments in other countries in recent months, including France (pledged to invest 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion)), Japan (announced a $2.9 billion AI push), Indonesia and Malaysia.
In Sweden, Microsoft will provide more than 20,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) needed to train AI models, increasing capacity at data centers in Sandviken, Gävle and Staffanstorp.
“AI is a catalyst for many things,” Kristerson says, “and it helps accelerate development in other areas. This huge investment in Sweden has the potential to pave the way for other investments.”
Data centers, which process and store vast amounts of data, require large amounts of electricity and water, accounting for about 2% of global electricity consumption, according to a study by HEC Montreal Business School.
Microsoft announced in 2020 that it aimed to become “carbon negative” by 2030, but its data showed that its emissions increased by 30% in 2023.
“The rise of Russian deepfakes”
Asked about the risks and misuse associated with artificial intelligence, Smith said Microsoft was monitoring AI-generated deepfakes “very closely.”
“To be honest with you, our biggest concern is the Russian government,” he said. “We've seen an increase in Russian activity with deepfakes.”
“This is the kind of danger we need to address and protect against going forward, and it's going to require additional work.”
He said the government needed to bring in new laws as well as bring in new capacities in the technology sector.
“Fundamentally, we need to use AI to protect ourselves from the misuse that others are doing with it,” Smith said.
AI technology, which is expected to transform almost every aspect of human life in the coming years, took a major leap in 2022 with the launch of ChatGPT, a generative tool that can create text, image and audio files on request.
