Ukrainians get less ammunition because of Tiktok videos

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Whether dance or animal videos – on the online portal Tiktok you will find an almost endless number of curious videos. Storing the huge amounts of data requires an extremely large amount of electricity. The hunger for electricity of the Chinese success platform has now apparently become fatal for the Ukrainian armed forces.

The Norwegian arms group Nammo – one of Europe’s largest ammunition producers – wants to expand to meet the increasing demand as a result of the war in Ukraine. But Tiktok stands in Nammo’s way: As the “Financial Times” reports, Nammo wanted to expand the production facility in Raufoss in central Norway. However, there is no excess energy because a data center with Tiktok as its main customer consumes the electricity in the region.

Nammo boss does not rule out calculation

Morten Brandtzæg says that Nammo’s loss of electricity is a huge problem. He is the CEO of the company, which is 50/50 owned by the Norwegian state and the Finnish arms company Patria.

The war in Ukraine has increased the demand for artillery ammunition fifteenfold. “We have never seen such high demand in our history,” Brandtzæg told the Financial Times.

Tiktok is building three data centers in Norway this year. There is also the possibility of building two more centers by 2025. Local energy company Elvia confirms that there is no excess energy after winning the data center contract.

The principle applies here: first come, first served. According to Elvia, depending on demand, it will take some time before the desired capacity can be made available to Nammo.

Nammo boss Brandtzæg feels alienated: “We are concerned that our future growth is jeopardized by the storage of cat videos.”

According to Brandtzæg, there could be computation behind this approach. It is perhaps no coincidence that a Chinese-owned company is holding back the expansion of a defense company. Brandtzæg: “I can’t rule it out.” (Darling)

Source: Blick