European data centre firm Lian Group has launched with two facilities in Norway.
This week saw the official launch of Polar, which bills itself as a developer of the “next generation of data centres to facilitate the latest developments in HPC and AI workloads.”
The company seems to have links with a European cryptomine firm. On its website, Polar says it has two AI-ready data centres available for customer deployment.
DRA01, located on a 60,000 sqm plot in southeast Norway, reportedly has 12MW of IT load immediately available, with another 36MW in development. Polar said the site uses free cooling, with rear door heat exchangers or direct liquid cooling options for HPC.
DAL01, located on a 19,000 sqm plot 35 km outside Bergen, reportedly has 20MW available with another 45MW in development. The site is said to be an existing industrial building previously used for manufacturing, and described as ready for fit-out for client needs. Polar said the site will use river cooling.
Polar is led by CEO Andy Hayes, who was previously CTO at hyperscale developer Yondr.
“Polar is accelerating infrastructure by developing a unique, technology-led, data centre platform that can meet the growing, diverse needs of our global customers,” Hayes said.
Hayes was at Yondr from 2019 until 2022, before that, he was at UK construction firm ISG and Keysource.
In a post on LinkedIn, Hayes said his team “is already growing and showing a great passion for collaboration and innovation.”
He added, “With a number of data centre developments already underway, I feel very excited to be leading the business.”
The company was founded by Fiorenzo Manganiello and Nessim-Sariel Gaon, who co-founded and led Lian Group, a technology investment company with more than $400m of capital deployed. Founded in 2017, Lian says its institutional clients include family offices, private banks, and UHNWI.
