Google's €13 billion bet on Finland and the nuclear power question

On 9 September 2026, Google announced it intends to invest at least €13 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure in Finland between 2027 and 2028, calling it its largest single operation in Europe. The project involves expanding the existing site in Hamina — a former paper mill converted in 2009 that houses seven data centres — and opening three new locations in Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala. According to estimates released by Google itself, the operation will contribute an average of €3.6 billion a year to Finnish GDP and support more than 37,000 jobs, roughly 16,000 of them on construction sites and 7,000 once the facilities are running, with average salaries 24% above the national median. Google has not disclosed the total electrical capacity or the number of accelerators planned, however, leaving the actual scale of computing impossible to verify from the outside.

The data centre expansion shows how the bottleneck in AI infrastructure is shifting towards electricity consumption. To secure supply, Google has signed agreements for 629 MW of onshore wind power and a 94 MW battery storage facility near Kajaani. The energy company Fortum has also announced a 22-year PPA starting in 2028, under which Google will take up to 50% of the output of the Loviisa nuclear plant between 2030 and 2049. Aris Karcanias, Google's director of energy for EMEA, explained that the group intends to do its part to keep a critical energy resource on the grid. The Loviisa plant supplies around 10% of the country's electricity: extending its life — its operating licences expire in 2050 — requires, according to Fortum, roughly €1 billion of investment between 2023 and 2050, of which around €700 million is still to come. The financial terms of the PPA have not been made public.

The deal lands in a Finland facing record unemployment and weak economic growth, not long before the April 2027 elections. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo called Google's decision a clear confirmation of the country's strengths, adding that the value of the data economy goes well beyond the direct investment because it drives innovation, research and development. At the same time, AFP's reporting highlights local concerns about an estimated 40% rise in energy consumption, with possible effects on residents' costs and on the environment, alongside a warning from the Finnish intelligence service (Supo) about the security risks of foreign-owned data centres.

When the race to run models turns technology companies into the main buyers of a nuclear plant's output, it becomes clear that the truly scarce resource in computing infrastructure is now the continuity of the electricity grid. — Olya