Google confirmed on September 9, 2026 that it will invest at least €13 billion (roughly $15.1 billion) in AI data centres in Finland over the next two years, marking the company’s biggest single investment anywhere in Europe. The money will build new data centre campuses in Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala, with the bulk of construction running through 2027 and 2028.
Bikash Koley, who leads Google’s networking infrastructure work, framed the announcement as a continuation of the company’s long relationship with the country: “Today’s announcement, our largest single investment in Europe, will provide a significant boost to the Finnish economy.”
Google’s investment in AI data centres in Finland
According to Google’s own projections, the construction phase will support more than 37,000 jobs nationwide and add an average of €3.6 billion a year to Finland’s GDP. Google Cloud’s release breaks that figure down further, estimating around 16,000 construction jobs generating €911 million in annual labour income, with roughly 7,000 jobs sustained once the sites are running, at wages the company says sit 24 percent above the Finnish median. These employment and GDP estimates come from Google itself; no independent economic body is cited verifying them.
Alongside the buildings, Google is committing €31 million over four years to community programmes in the four host municipalities, including AI training for more than 4,400 workers and a scheme to prepare 100 Finnish students for data centre careers. On the energy side, the company has signed a 22 year deal to help extend the life of the Loviisa nuclear plant, added new onshore wind contracts bringing its supported capacity to 629 megawatts, and ordered a 94 megawatt battery system for the Kajaani area, due online in late 2027.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo welcomed the investment, saying, “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,” and added that closer cooperation would “deliver lasting benefits for both parties.”
Who actually designs a data centre
For architecture students watching this deal, the more interesting story may be who is not in the room. Data centres are among the fastest expanding building types on the planet right now, yet the sector is dominated by engineering and design build contractors rather than architecture practices. Google’s own materials describe the Finnish sites mainly in terms of megawatts, grid connections and cooling systems, with almost nothing said about architectural design, massing or public presence.
That gap is exactly where architects could argue for a bigger role. A data hall is, first, an enormous thermal and logistical problem, but it is also a piece of landscape and infrastructure that a neighbouring town has to live next to for decades. Decisions about facade treatment, noise containment for cooling plant, the routing of water and power lines, and how a windowless volume meets the surrounding forest or farmland are architectural decisions as much as engineering ones, even when they are currently resolved by specialist consultants working directly for the client.
Hamina’s paper mill precedent
Google’s own history in Finland offers a useful case study. The company’s first Finnish facility, in Hamina, began life as a paper mill and was converted into a data centre in 2009, reusing the site’s existing structure and its access to seawater for cooling rather than building on a green field. That project also pioneered a system that redirects waste heat from the servers into the local district heating network, an early example of a data centre engaging directly with the fabric of the town around it.
Local officials describe the new expansion in similarly place specific terms. Hamina mayor Ilari Soosalu called the relationship with Google “a true success story that began back in 2009,” while Muhos town manager Kimmo Hinno described the project as strengthening his municipality’s position for “future growth, innovation, and sustainable development.” Neither statement touches on design, but both point to the kind of long term physical relationship between a data centre and its host community that architects are trained to think about: land use, shared infrastructure, and how an industrial scale building sits within a smaller settlement.
What is confirmed for now is the schedule: construction concentrated in 2027 and 2028, workforce training programmes beginning in that window, and the battery system in Kajaani expected to connect to the grid in late 2027. Google has not named an architect, design firm or contractor for any of the four sites.
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