Anna Kristín Pálsdóttir

The Nordic data centre market is preparing itself for extreme growth over the next five years, as businesses across Europe accelerate their AI investments. Investment in the region is growing on account of its cooler climate, cheaper renewable energy and greater availability in comparison to constrained FLAP-D markets.

At the forefront of this innovation sits atNorth, a Nordic data centre operator that has placed sustainability at the forefront of its growth strategy. Leading this charge is Anna Kristín Pálsdóttir, the company’s Chief Development Officer. Since joining the company just over a year ago, Anna has been responsible for the operator’s footprint expansion across the Nordic countries. 

“I joined the company tasked with its footprint expansion – site selection, design, technology, innovation and delivery in line with customer expectations,” she explains. “We are developing new data centres and making sure they meet atNorth’s standards as well as industry and client requirements.”

Presenting a clear expansion strategy 

“We have extensive expansion plans”, says Anna. The business is expanding two of its three operational facilities in Iceland, where it established its first operations in 2009. In addition to its four other operational sites across Finland and Sweden, it is about to open its first Danish site, with a second under development, as well as additional facilities planned in Finland and Sweden. “We have also secured additional land in Sweden that is earmarked for a future megasite and have many sites under evaluation in Norway too”.

Anna’s engineering background influences her structured approach to scaling operations. She emphasises the importance of learning from mistakes quickly and applying those lessons systematically across future projects, saying “we only make a mistake once and learn from it – it is essential for innovation”.

Building for decades, not years

The rapid pace of expansion requires careful planning and modular thinking. atNorth’s leadership team constantly evaluates which processes can be streamlined and scaled effectively. This approach ensures that hard-won operational knowledge translates into improved efficiency across all new developments – whilst also making sure that new facilities are delivering genuine value.

“In everything that I do, especially when we are doing something new, I try to always put myself in the seat of the customer to see if we are going in the right direction,” Anna explains. 

“This is our business – being responsible, constantly improving our footprint and working on basically being net carbon neutral into the future.”

Iceland is a critical market for atNorth, given that is where the company is headquartered. In 2009, it started its first operations and has grown significantly to support increased demand from its customers. By prioritising trust and the closeness of the Nordic community, Anna says atNorth has been able to scale successfully. 

“We are a responsible business with sustainability at the forefront of our company ethos – this is what matters. It matters a lot that people come in, they get to know us, we are constantly talking about how we can expand in the most responsible way,” she explains.

“It is good because the Nordic region is a community of sorts, so we do work on our reputation and people can check how we have been operating in the last 16 years – including how we have been growing our footprint in Iceland for a long time and now Finland.”