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The two-year plan makes energy supply, grid flexibility and local investment part of Google’s case for expanding AI capacity—not add-ons after the data centers are built.
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Google’s Finnish expansion is a 2027–2028 construction program, not newly operating capacity: data centers and related infrastructure are planned in four municipalities, with services such as Gemini among the expected workloads. Its affordability case rests on execution—an agreement with Fortum could support Loviisa’s operation through 2050, while wind, storage and demand-response measures are intended to stabilize supply.
The 22-year Fortum agreement covers up to half of Loviisa’s capacity during its extension; possible new reactors remain exploratory.
Two wind projects would lift Google’s contracted Finnish wind capacity to 629 MW; a 94 MW Kajaani battery is targeted for late 2027.
Google plans €31 million in four-year community funding, AI-skills training for more than 4,400 workers, and opportunities for 100 students.
Google is promising a €13 billion Finnish buildout while arguing that its new AI infrastructure will strengthen, rather than strain, the country’s electricity system. The company plans data centers across four locations for 2027–2028 and has paired the expansion with a long-term nuclear agreement, additional wind contracts and a battery project. The scale is clear; whether those linked measures deliver the affordability and resilience Google forecasts remains a future test.
Google says it will invest at least €13 billion in digital infrastructure in Finland during 2027 and 2028. The plan covers data centers and supporting infrastructure in Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala, alongside clean-energy projects, partnerships and local programs. Google describes it as its largest single investment in Europe.
The company says the facilities are meant to meet demand for services including Search, Maps and Gemini. But the announcement does not describe completed new facilities. It sets out a planned construction period beginning next year, with Google projecting economic effects during that work and permanent employment once the sites are operating.
Google says the investment is planned for 2027–2028.
Google projects this nationwide construction-phase employment effect for 2027 and 2028.
This is Google’s estimate for the initiative during the construction phase.
The centerpiece is a 22-year power purchase agreement with Fortum supporting the life extension of the Loviisa nuclear power plant. Fortum says the contract covers up to half of the plant’s capacity during the extension period and provides revenue certainty for investment intended to keep Loviisa operating through 2050.
Loviisa currently supplies about 10% of Finland’s electricity and employs roughly 580 people, according to Google. Google and Fortum also signed a memorandum to explore additional carbon-free generation and flexibility capacity, including potential new reactors at the Loviisa site. Those reactor discussions are exploratory, not a commitment to build one.
Google says it selected northern and central Finnish locations with existing grid infrastructure and nearby carbon-free power. In a study it commissioned, locating a hypothetical one-gigawatt increase in demand in the Oulu–Kajaani region rather than southern Finland was estimated to save Finnish energy consumers €520 million over 20 years. That figure is a modeled comparison for a hypothetical demand addition, not a measured result from the announced facilities.
Google is also allocating €31 million across four years for community partnerships in the four municipalities, including funding for research and innovation. It says it will work with local colleges on AI-skills programs for more than 4,400 workers and create training opportunities for 100 Finnish students for data-center careers.
The announcement therefore asks to be judged on more than a capital total. Google has attached its data-center plan to concrete contracts and planned projects, but its central promise—that additional supply and flexible demand will protect Finnish households and businesses from higher costs—will depend on construction, grid connections and the performance of those measures over time.
Editorial analysis
Google is presenting the Finland commitment as a model in which data-center expansion arrives with contracts for generation, storage and grid support. The most consequential proof point is not the €13 billion headline; it is whether the Loviisa life-extension program, new wind capacity and the planned Kajaani battery move from agreements into operating infrastructure alongside the new sites. That sequencing matters because Google’s own case rests on the claim that growth can be added without pushing costs onto other electricity users. The company has made similar power procurement commitments around a planned Utah data center, but Finland puts nuclear life extension and flexible storage into the same national buildout.
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