Machinepower Index / Dossiers / Denmark
Rank 23–30 across the scoring rules tested. How this is tested
Denmark
Diffusion Advantage — For nations that cannot build the frontier but can use it faster than anyone: import the models and win on deployment, across the state and the economy, with public consent.
How the Score, Potential and bottleneck cost are worked out: methodology.
The three layers
Energy, grids, data centres and silicon — the physical capacity to run models at scale.
Compute tracked by Epoch AI: Denmark controls 3,000 H100-equivalents, wherever the sites are. Hosted compute is shown, not scored.
Models, alignment capability, standards influence and the talent that produces them.
The capacity to wire AI into the state and the economy while holding public consent.
Where the score comes from
| Layer | Sub-dimension | Basis | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watts | Planning & Permitting | Assessed | 4.6 |
| Firm Power Capacity | Dataset | 2.6 | |
| Sovereign Compute | Dataset | 4.7 | |
| Hardware & Silicon Access | Dataset | 4.7 | |
| Weights | Frontier Model Output | Dataset | 3.0 |
| Alignment Capability | Assessed | 6.2 | |
| Regulatory Standing | Dataset | 9.4 | |
| Talent Density | Dataset | 4.6 | |
| Will | Policy Capacity | Dataset | 9.3 |
| Public Sector Adoption | Dataset | 8.5 | |
| Workforce Transition | Dataset | 8.9 | |
| Public Trust | Assessed | 6.3 |
Assessed marks a measurement we judged rather than took from a dataset: 3 of the 12 here.
Sources
About 60 GW of connection requests against a 7 GW peak led the grid operator to pause new large connections in March 2026.
View source →One of three EU states with an AI Act law in force; no safety statements or safety body.
View source →Largest: Gefion.
View source →Talent is a log scale on the count.
View source →Feeds governance and public-sector adoption; policy capacity is listed separately.
View source →Ipsos does not cover it. Mapped to the Ipsos scale through the 28 countries both surveys cover.
View source →Feeds workforce, rescaled across 173 economies.
View source →Fossil, nuclear, hydro and other dispatchable plant; averaged with generation for firm power.
View source →Second source for talent, averaged with Stanford's count.
View source →Bottlenecks
These hold Denmark below its Potential. Its two lowest scores cost it the most: firm power capacity at 2.6 (part of Watts) and frontier model output at 3.0 (part of Weights).
Assessment
Denmark runs one of the world's most digital states and owns a national AI supercomputer, Gefion, paid for by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Its grid has run out: new large connections have been paused since March 2026.
The art of the possible
Gefion gives Danish researchers compute most small states lack, and a digital government gives them somewhere to use it. How grid capacity is shared out decides whether more follows.
Strategic play — Diffusion Advantage
Spend scarce power on use, not hosting: give research and public services first claim on the grid, and stop competing for campuses it cannot carry.
Leverage — the nearest position. No chokepoint. The nearest key is health data: decades of national registries, now beside Novo Nordisk's compute, which drug-discovery models need.
Open Denmark in the live Index → — every source behind every number, and the comparison tool.