Skygard, Backed by Telenor, Expands Oslo Footprint with Acquisition of Two Orange Data Centers
January 12, 2026 The Nordic data center market continues to consolidate as regional players scale up to meet rising demand for digital infrastructure. In a strategic move to bolster its position, Skygard AS, a Norwegian data center joint venture, has acquired two facilities in Oslo from Orange Business Services. The transaction, finalized this week, involves the OSL3 and OSL4 data centers. Skygard, established in 2023, is jointly owned by telecommunications giant Telenor (31.7%), energy company Hafslund (31.7%), investment fund HitecVision (31.7%), and consultancy Analysys Mason (5%). The acquisition price was not disclosed. This deal significantly expands Skygard's operational capacity and established customer base. The company is concurrently developing a new 20-megawatt facility, OSL1, in Oslo's Hovinbyen district. Spanning 25,000 square meters (269,095 square feet), OSL1 is designed to supply waste heat to the local district heating network upon completion. With the addition of the newly acquired sites and its planned future builds, Skygard aims to achieve a combined capacity of 40MW across its portfolio. Elise Lindeberg, CEO of Skygard, stated, "The acquisition marks an important milestone for Skygard. With this, we are significantly increasing our capacity and becoming a key player in secure data storage – a vital component of the digital foundation for Norwegian business." She emphasized that the takeover includes an experienced operations team, which will enhance service delivery and flexibility. For Orange, the sale represents a divestiture of assets it originally acquired in 2018 as part of its €350 million purchase of European managed service provider Basefarm. The OSL5 facility, located in Oslo's Rasta area and previously marketed with a potential capacity of up to 10MW across 6,000 square meters, was included in the transaction. The move underscores the strategic focus of telecom operators like Orange on core connectivity services, while specialized infrastructure ventures like Skygard, backed by industrial and financial partners, accelerate the build-out of critical data center assets in energy-advantaged regions like Norway. Source: datacenterdynamics
