Critical infrastructure
Keeping Us Afloat
What infrastructure must be built to secure the value creation of the future?
The digital economy can seem intangible, but it rests on increasingly scarce and strategic physical infrastructure. AI needs computing power, computing power needs data centres, data centres need vast amounts of energy, and both technology and energy systems depend on minerals, networks, satellites and robust value chains.
This session explores what Norway actually has to build, secure and control to create value in the decades ahead, and how we can use our advantages in areas such as power, minerals, cooling and space to own larger parts of the value chains.
Critical infrastructure is also about vulnerability: systems often only become visible when they stop working. The session therefore also explores how dependent business has become on the infrastructure around it, and how companies prepare for a situation where power, grids, payments, communications or positioning services go down.
Questions we explore
- Where will the power for AI, data centres and increased electrification come from?
- Which infrastructure should Norway prioritize to be competitive in the digital economy?
- How can Norway own more of the value creation around critical minerals rather than just supplying the raw materials?
- What role can Norway and the Nordics play in data centres, computing power and the space industry?
- How dependent is Norwegian business on satellite-based infrastructure, and what happens if it is attacked or goes down?
- How well prepared are Norwegian companies for critical infrastructure actually failing?