In A Surprise, China-Linked TikTok Grabs Power Norway Needs To Make Ammo

Days before the European Union formally agreed to a landmark, 2 billion Euro deal, bolstering depleted NATO arsenals and expanding European ammunition-manufacturing infrastructure, TikTok, the embattled China-linked viral video provider, finalized a plan to commission a 150-megawatt data center in central Norway. The move leaves one of Europe’s largest ammunition production facilities without enough power to increase production of much-needed NATO-standard cannon shells.

The energy-grab came as a surprise to Norway’s defense sector. The data center agreement, leveraging the local energy provider’s first-come, first-served energy distribution policy, forced the local power company to immediately set the extra energy aside for TikTok. If allowed to stand, TikTok’s move hamstrings Norway’s efforts to quickly bolster the production capabilities of Europe’s ammunition manufacturing sector.

With all the easily accessible regional energy in central Norway now spoken for, ammunition provider Nammo AS is out of luck.

Unless Norway acts to secure energy resources for the ammunition manufacturer, Nammo AS will be unable to increase production of much-needed NATO-standard 155-millimeter howitzer shells.

The local energy provider, Elvia, suggested that it would take a good amount of time—years—to strengthen the electrical transmission network, complicating Europe’s efforts to restock depleted ammunition stockpiles and resupply Ukraine as Kyiv struggles to resist Russia’s illegal and unjustified invasion.

Encroachment Just Got Real

The energy grab, part of TikTok’s “Project Clover” was perfectly sized, perfectly timed, and perfectly couched to roil Norway’s defense sector and create an unwelcom political mess for Norwegian leaders.

While TikTok extolled the security and green benefits of the new datacenter, saying the project would create a “secure enclave for European TikTok user data”, the move—whether intentionally or not—effectively sacrificed Nammo, a traditional defense contractor jointly owned by the governments of Norway and Finland.

Nammo’s chief executive, Morten Brandsaeg, summed up the dilemma for the Financial Times, quipping, “We are concerned because we see our future growth is challenged by the storage of cat videos.”

Regardless of intent, the tactic of putting competing national security interests at cross-purposes is familiar to long-time observers of China’s “salami-slicing” national security behavior. Intentional or not, the controversy adds fuel to the already-supercharged debate over Chinese encroachment on national security infrastructure worldwide and China’s pattern of blending commercial and national security interests.

The U.S., already concerned about the frequent co-location of Chinese-linked entities near critical defense facilities and other infrastructure, may need to review this incident, and examine how foreign entities might use investments to “game” local interests and resources to interfere or block U.S. national priorities.

This isn’t a case of, say, some Chinese-linked entity buying land overlooking a nearby defense facility, but of how a proposed development, some sixteen miles away from Norway’s ammunition manufacturer, can be employed to raise the political, economic, and national security cost of enacting policies that are not in China’s interests.

With China well-versed in using laws and policies to gain operational advantages, national security-oriented evaluators of foreign activities must put a lot more energy and creativity into unspooling the potential second and third-order regional effects of foreign investments.

In Norway, Old And New Industries Eye Similar Resources:

National security aside, ammunition manufacturers and data centers are competitors. To survive, they need the same thing—energy, and lots of it.

Historically, ammunition manufacturers—involved in locking energy into explosive chemical compounds—were located in remote areas that had access to cheap energy. In the U.S., many legacy, World War II-era ammunition plants were located in the then-remote Appalachia region, using power from the America’s newly-built Tennessee Valley Authority hydroelectric power generation system.

The same is true in this case. Nammos’ corporate headquarters and major production facilities are located in Norway’s Raufoss area, about 75 miles north of Oslo. The ammunition manufacturing facility has leveraged the region’s hydroelectric power to produce artillery shells and other explosive products since the late 1800’s.

Data centers, attracted by Norway’s cool temperatures and ready supply of “green” hydroelectric power, are new competitors. Legacy industries have yet to fully understand them. Perceived as far less dangerous and more environmentally friendly, than ammunition manufacturers, data centers often have a far easier time moving forward with projects than heavy industry.

That said, data centers are scalable, capable of precise targeting of every watt of available energy in certain generating regions. They can use an enormous amount of energy, too—the new TikTok facility in Norway, when built, will account for almost 10% of the electricity consumption in Norway’s interior, or, in other words, half a percent of Norway’s total energy use.

Nammo, in comparison, needs only 30-40 megawatts to embark upon a multimillion dollar expansion that will, in time, employ hundreds of additional workers in Norway. It should be a “no brainer”, but, by swooping in and grabbing resources, the embattled TikTok is not shying away from controversy, and is, again, exposing itself as a flashpoint between China and an increasingly suspicious West.