State AI — who is to own the machine?

A Swedish company that wakes up tomorrow with an idea capable of upending an entire industry will need computing power.

A doctor who wants to use artificial intelligence to catch disease before it catches the patient will need computing power.

A researcher, an engineer, a games developer, a factory worker, a public agency, and our armed forces will need computing power.

The question, then, is no longer whether Sweden needs AI.

The question is this:

WHO IS TO OWN THE INFRASTRUCTURE?

It is fashionable to present this as a technical question. It is nothing of the kind. It is a question of power.

If the most important computing power of the coming age is owned by a handful of global corporations, Sweden may of course buy services from them. We may rent their machines. We may pay their prices. We may arrange our affairs to suit their priorities.

But we shall not own them.

And a country that controls no part of the infrastructure on which its economy and its common life have come to depend has quietly surrendered a portion of its freedom to act.

That is why Sweden shall build a national AI power plant.

THE STATE SHALL OWN THE INFRASTRUCTURE — THE PEOPLE SHALL FILL IT WITH IDEAS

This does not mean that the state shall decide which apps people build.

It does not mean that some ministry shall attempt to become the next technology company.

It does not mean bureaucrats micromanaging invention.

Quite the contrary.

Swedish companies shall build the services. Entrepreneurs shall found the firms. Universities shall do the research. Programmers, artists, engineers and inventors shall create things no politician has yet had the wit to imagine.

But the underlying infrastructure shall stand here.

On Swedish soil.

Under Swedish law.

Under Swedish democratic control.

Sweden built railways, power stations, roads, universities and digital networks because certain investments are larger than any single person and any single firm — and yet decisive for the freedom of both.

AI capacity is becoming exactly that kind of infrastructure.

BEGIN WITH 20,000 PROCESSORS

The first stage must be large enough to matter.

Build a Swedish AI campus dimensioned for at least 200–250 megawatts, with room to grow.

Install roughly 20,000 advanced AI processors in the first stage.

The investment is estimated at 20–35 billion kronor.

That is a great deal of money.

Politics that concerns itself with the future costs money.

But let us keep our sense of proportion.

Sweden's long-term political ambition for new nuclear power amounts to roughly 10,000 megawatts. The official construction estimate for that undertaking sits around 826 billion kronor, and a broader planning scenario around 1.3 trillion.

The first great Swedish AI venture, in other words, corresponds to about TWO PERCENT of that planning figure.

For about two percent, Sweden can begin building the computing infrastructure that its companies, its research, its welfare state and its public sector will need throughout the age of AI.

We can afford to discuss trillions for the energy supply of the future.

Then we can afford to discuss a few tens of billions for the technology that will put that energy to work — and create the next generation of companies, research and productivity.

TURN SWEDEN'S NATURAL ADVANTAGES INTO SWEDISH STRENGTH

Sweden has fossil-free electricity.

We have hydropower.

We have a cold climate that makes efficient cooling almost embarrassingly easy.

We have technical universities, advanced industry, engineers, and a long tradition of marrying research to the practical business of building a society.

But good conditions are not enough.

You have to use them.

Grid capacity in northern Sweden is not unlimited. The site shall therefore not be chosen by municipal beauty contest or political symbolism. It shall be chosen where Sweden can secure power, fibre, physical security, the use of waste heat, and room to expand.

Politics is not wishing for a server hall.

Politics is building the thing.

SWEDISH COMPANIES SHALL COMPETE WITHOUT ASKING PERMISSION FROM SILICON VALLEY

A small Swedish company should not have to be an American giant to get access to advanced AI capacity.

Sweden's AI power plant shall therefore sell computing capacity to Swedish and European companies under open and intelligible rules.

Small firms and new firms shall be able to receive compute vouchers.

Universities and research shall have strategic access.

The public sector shall be able to use specially protected Swedish environments.

Healthcare data, government information and material of consequence to the security of the realm shall be processed in infrastructure whose legal, technical and physical control resides in Sweden.

That is technological sovereignty in practice.

Not a flag stuck on somebody else's server.

THE RETURNS SHALL FLOW BACK TO SOCIETY

When private international corporations build server halls in Sweden, they can create jobs and investment. Good.

But their assets are theirs.

Their decisions are theirs.

And their profit is theirs.

A Swedish AI power plant shall operate on a different principle.

Companies pay for the capacity they use. European customers may buy capacity. Public bodies may buy secure Swedish services.

The revenues shall first pay for operations, security and the perpetual renewal of the processors.

After that, the surplus shall belong to the owner.

And the owner shall be the Swedish people.

It can be reinvested in the next generation of computing power, in research, in education and in welfare.

That is the difference between Sweden being merely the market for the new technology, and Sweden also owning a share of its means of production.

BUILD FOR 100,000 — BUY 20,000 FIRST

We shall be bold without being reckless.

So we build the infrastructure for gigafactory scale from the start, but install roughly 20,000 processors in the first stage.

When the capacity is used, we build on.

50,000.

Then 100,000.

But the next step is taken because Swedish and European customers need the capacity — not because some minister needs a new ribbon to cut.

A full AI gigafactory is estimated to cost roughly 75–125 billion kronor.

Even that corresponds to only about 6–10 percent of the broader planning value of the nuclear expansion Sweden is already discussing.

And the EU is at this very moment looking for projects for Europe's coming AI gigafactories.

Sweden shall not stand at the side of the road buying a ticket to somebody else's future.

Sweden shall help build it.

AI IS TOO IMPORTANT TO BE LEFT TO THE FEW

There are those who will say:

The market will sort this out.

The market is excellent at a great many things. It shall build the companies, create the services, compete, and find solutions no politician could ever have planned into existence.

But the market does not, on its own, answer the question of national security.

It does not guarantee that Swedish healthcare has capacity when demand explodes.

It does not guarantee Swedish researchers access.

It does not guarantee small companies a fighting chance against the largest corporations on earth.

And above all, it does not guarantee that the returns from a strategic Swedish public asset accrue to Swedish citizens.

That is where democracy comes in.

We shall not nationalise human creativity.

We shall give it Swedish ground to stand on.

We shall not let the state invent all the companies of the future.

We shall make sure the companies of the future can be invented here.

We shall not close Sweden to the world.

We shall cooperate with the Nordic countries and with Europe, and sell capacity to them.

But cooperation does not require that you renounce owning anything yourself.

Quite the contrary.

Whoever wishes to cooperate as an independent party must bring something to the table.

SWEDEN SHALL NOT BECOME A DIGITAL RAW-MATERIALS COLONY

We shall not content ourselves with supplying the electricity, the land and the cold while others own the machines, the models, the customers and the profits.

We shall use our natural resources to build knowledge, companies and common capital in Sweden.

Hydropower built industry.

Telecommunications built companies.

Education built knowledge.

Now Swedish computing power shall help build the next generation.

In the end, this is about freedom.

The freedom of a small company to compete.

The freedom of the researcher to do research.

The freedom of public institutions to protect people's data.

The freedom of Sweden to make its own decisions as the world grows less certain.

And the freedom of a people to say:

The infrastructure we need together, we can also build together.

WE SHALL NOT RENT THE WHOLE OF THE FUTURE FROM OTHERS.

WE SHALL OWN A PART OF IT OURSELVES.

BUILD SWEDEN'S AI POWER PLANT.

FROM WORDS TO WORKS — HOW WE BUILD SWEDEN'S AI POWER PLANT

An election manifesto must not stop at words. It must say what is to be done, when it is to be done, and who carries the responsibility. The need for AI will not shrink. It will grow faster than our present institutions can plan for.

Sweden shall therefore not build a pilot plant and then sit down to wait for an evaluation. We shall build a national infrastructure that can grow every year.

5,000 processors in 2028. 20,000 processors in 2030. 50,000 processors in 2032. At least 100,000 processors in 2035.

THE LEADERSHIP: A MISSION, NOT A MINISTRY

Parliament shall decide on goals, ownership, financing and oversight. But the project shall not be run by a ministry, nor by a committee of agencies each guarding its old turf.

A state-owned company, Sveriges AI-kraftverk AB (Sweden's AI Power Plant Ltd), is founded with a single mission: to build, own and develop Swedish computing power.

The leadership is recruited openly and internationally, from among people who have actually built data centres, energy systems, technology companies and advanced AI infrastructure. Agencies, universities and organisations may contribute expertise — but no automatic board seats and no right of veto.

RISE, AI Sweden, NAISS and others can be suppliers and partners. They shall not be permitted to make the project dependent on their tempo.

The work shall use AI for planning, procurement, cost control, simulation of energy needs and continuous risk analysis. Every quarter, the time, cost, capacity and deviations are reported publicly.

It demands mathematical rigour, technical experience, and the insight that whoever waits for full consensus has already lost.

2026–2027: DECIDE, AND START BUILDING

• Found Sveriges AI-kraftverk AB within the government's first hundred days.
• Decide on 20–35 billion kronor for the first national stage.
• Set aside 1–2 billion kronor immediately for land, planning, grid agreements, permits, and the ordering of transformers and other long-lead-time equipment.
• Submit Sweden's application to the EU's AI gigafactory programme no later than 12 November 2026. Sweden shall seek European money — but not European permission to begin.
• Choose the site within six months. What decides it is secured power, dual fibre routes, physical security and room to expand — not which municipality runs the prettiest campaign.
• Secure land and a grid connection for at least 250 MW. The first connection shall be 40–50 MW, but the whole site shall be built for 100,000 processors.
• Start permits, grid connection, procurement and planning in parallel. Sweden has no time to let each process wait politely for the previous one to finish.

2028: THE FIRST FACILITY GOES INTO OPERATION

At least 5,000 processors shall be in operation during 2028.

• Power requirement: 10–15 MW.
• Investment: 5–9 billion kronor.

The first hall shall be used by Swedish healthcare, Sweden's defence, Swedish companies, universities and public agencies while the rest of the facility is being built.

The processors are bought in recurring rounds. Sweden shall never fill the entire facility with a single generation of hardware and then watch it all grow old at once.

2030: NATIONAL CAPACITY IN EARNEST

By 2030, at least 20,000 advanced AI processors shall be in operation.

• Power requirement: 40–50 MW.
• Electricity use: 0.3–0.4 TWh per year.
• Total investment: 20–35 billion kronor.
• Annual cost including hardware renewal: 4–8 billion kronor.

Healthcare and defence get specially protected Swedish environments. Small companies get compute vouchers. Universities and research get reserved capacity. Commercial and European customers pay market price.

When capacity runs short, the answer is to build more. Sweden shall not administer scarcity as a permanent condition. We shall build. If an absolute priority must nevertheless be set, Swedish healthcare and Sweden's defence come first. Then Swedish companies. Idle capacity shall be used for Swedish foundation models, research, education, defence, and sales in Europe.

2030–2035: BUILD THE GIGAFACTORY

The expansion shall continue toward 50,000 processors in 2032 and at least 100,000 processors by 2035 at the latest.

At full scale, this requires:

• 75–125 billion kronor in total investment.
• 200–230 MW of power.
• 1.6–2.0 TWh of electricity per year.
• 15–27 billion kronor in annual cost, including perpetual hardware renewal.

The state shall own the company, the land, the strategic control and the Swedish capacity. The EU and private industry may contribute through investment, guarantees and long-term purchases of computing power. They may buy capacity — not Sweden's right to decide.

A second, geographically separate facility shall also be built, for reserve capacity and national resilience.

THE COST IS LARGE. THE ALTERNATIVE IS LARGER.

Sweden's nuclear ambition carries a planning value of roughly 1.3 trillion kronor.

The first AI stage corresponds to about two percent of that. A full Swedish AI gigafactory corresponds to roughly 6–10 percent.

We cannot discuss trillions for producing the electricity of the future and then turn timid when a few tens of billions are to be spent on the infrastructure that converts that electricity into knowledge, companies, defence and productivity.

This is not a data-centre project.

It is a Swedish industrial project, a knowledge project, and a project of independence.

BY 2030, SWEDEN SHALL OWN SIGNIFICANT NATIONAL AI CAPACITY. BY 2035 AT THE LATEST, WE SHALL BE ONE OF EUROPE'S LEADING PRODUCERS OF COMPUTING POWER.

WE SHALL NOT PLAN FOR TODAY'S DEMAND. WE SHALL BUILD FOR THE WORLD THAT IS ALREADY ON ITS WAY.