A Norwegian defence company has said that it is unable to expand its factory and make ammunition because a nearby data centre, which has TikTok as its main client, is using up all the electricity in the central Norway region, according to a report in Financial Times. The Nordic Ammunition Company, better known as Nammo, told the UK newspaper that there's no surplus of energy for its Raufoss plant, where the new factory was planned. Nammo is co-owned by the Norwegian government and a Finnish state-controlled defence company.
"We are concerned because we see our future growth is challenged by the storage of cat videos," Morten Brandtzaeg, the company's chief executive officer (CEO), told the Financial Times.
Nammo has received a huge demand for ammunition due to the war in Ukraine, which is using 6,000 rounds per day. But the company is unable to meet it.
Mr Brandtzaeg said European arms manufacturers need to invest 2 billion euros (Rs 1,787.5 crore) just to keep up with the demand from Ukraine, but have been unable to do so.
Local energy provider Elvia confirmed to Financial Times that it has no electricity to spare, and that the energy is allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
TikTok is building three data centres in Norway this year, and plans to add two more by 2025, the country's data centre provider Green Mountain said in a release this month.
Meanwhile, TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is facing increased ban calls from the US and Europe over security concerns. Earlier this month, the UK announced a security ban of TikTok on government devices, in line with action by the European Union and the United States.
However, TikTok's owner ByteDance and the Chinese government have dismissed the security fears over the app and denounced the Western bans as politically motivated.
