Google will put at least 13 billion euros, about 15.1 billion dollars, into artificial intelligence infrastructure in Finland across the next two years, in what the company called its biggest single investment anywhere in Europe. Unveiled on September 9, the plan is built around three new data centers in the north of the country, where winter temperatures routinely drop below minus 10 degrees Celsius.
The cold Nordic air and a dependable power grid are a large part of the draw. Data centers burn through electricity and water to keep their servers from overheating, and freezing outdoor air is a cheaper way to shed that heat. Competitors including Microsoft and ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, have been hunting for sites in the same region as demand for computing capacity keeps climbing.
A nuclear supply arrangement sits at the heart of the package. Google signed a 22 year contract to buy up to half the output of one of Finland’s two nuclear plants, operated by the utility Fortum. “We call this BYOP, bring your own power,” said Ruth Porat, Google’s president and chief investment officer, describing it as the company’s first nuclear deal outside the United States. Fortum shares jumped 15.5 percent to their highest in four and a half years, and the two firms said they would also examine fresh nuclear and renewable projects.
The spending, scheduled for 2027 and 2028, is expected to add roughly 3.6 billion euros to Finnish output during construction and to sustain about 7,000 jobs a year once the sites run, according to Google. Beyond the data centers, the money covers grid upgrades and clean energy and battery work, all of it feeding services such as Gemini, Search, Maps and YouTube.
The pledge lands as Alphabet, Google’s parent, pushes its worldwide capital budget to between 195 and 205 billion dollars this year to keep pace with AI demand. Prime Minister Petteri Orpo of Finland said the deal would strengthen the economy and brushed aside worries over supply and prices, insisting there was enough electricity. Fortum said the long contract gave it the certainty to extend the life of its Loviisa plant through 2050, a site near Google’s existing data center at Hamina.
