Google plans to invest about $15.1 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure in Finland over the next two years, including data centers, energy projects and battery systems supporting services such as Gemini, Maps and YouTube. The scope highlights how, across the industry, securing power has become as central to AI infrastructure planning as the computing capacity itself.

The investment, which Google made public earlier this week, will cover facilities and supporting infrastructure in Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala. Google described it as its “largest single investment” in Europe. The development is scheduled to take place in 2027 and 2028.

According to Google, the project is expected to contribute about $3.6 billion to Finland’s gross domestic product during the construction phase and support approximately 7,000 jobs annually once the infrastructure is operational.

The announcement has drawn attention from local businesses and investors. Matti Lajunen, a partner specializing in real estate at Finnish law firm Hannes Snellman, told AI Business that large, high-profile investments can validate a market for other investors and accelerate inquiries from potential new entrants.

“Large, high-profile investments tend to have a signaling effect: they validate the market to other investors and often accelerate the pipeline of inquiries we're seeing from new entrants,” Lajunen said.

Lajunen also identified a broader convergence between renewable energy and data center development, saying that renewable energy developers are increasingly becoming data center developers themselves. He said the trend aligns with Finland’s grid stability and power infrastructure.

Whether Finland becomes a leading European hub for AI infrastructure will depend in part on continued investment in grid capacity and the speed of permitting, according to the report. Those same factors will help determine how quickly the country’s growing pipeline of announced projects moves from plans to operating capacity.

Google discloses nuclear power agreement

Google separately disclosed a 22-year purchase agreement with Finnish energy operator Fortum. Under the agreement, Google will receive up to 50% of the energy output from one of Finland’s two nuclear plants. The contract is Google’s first nuclear power agreement outside the United States.

Finland’s nuclear power resources are an important attraction for technology companies seeking to supply increasingly power-intensive data centers while meeting sustainability requirements, and long-dated contracts of this kind give operators multi-year certainty over the electricity such facilities require.

“Finland is an attractive destination for investments, and attracting further investment remains a top priority,” Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said in the Google blog post about the agreement. “Google’s decision is a clear testament to our strengths. The value of the data economy extends far beyond direct investment into spurring innovation, research, and development.”

Google is not the only company expanding its interest in Finland. Several other data center projects have been announced in the country in recent months.

“We're now seeing weekly new inquiries for market entry into Finland from new players,” Lajunen said. “The drivers are consistent: competitive and stable power prices, a cold climate that reduces cooling costs, strong grid reliability, ample access to water, and a growing base of renewable and nuclear generation capacity.”

Recent agreements indicate that this interest is translating into projects. In July, pan-European hyperscale cloud and AI data center platform vendor Pure DC confirmed a $1.74 billion investment to build a 110-megawatt campus in Finland, with the capacity to scale beyond 550 megawatts.

In March, Dutch neocloud provider Nebius also unveiled plans to build one of Europe’s largest AI factories in Finland, with a capacity of up to 310 megawatts.

Source: AI Business