Google commits €13B to four Finland data center sites

Google is putting at least €13 billion ($15.1B) into Finland over 2027 and 2028, funding three new data center sites plus an expansion of its existing Hamina facility. The new sites go up in Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala, according to Google's announcement.

The stated reason is the power grid. Google says 96% of Finland's electricity is carbon-free, which matters for a company running data centers that need constant, heavy electricity draw. Siting compute next to clean baseload power is cheaper than buying offsets or building new generation elsewhere.

The jobs numbers tell two different stories depending on which year you're reading them in. Google projects the construction phase adds €3.6 billion a year to Finnish GDP and supports 37,000 jobs. Once the sites are built and running, that drops to 7,000 ongoing jobs, though Google says those pay 24% above the national median wage.

That gap between 37,000 and 7,000 is the pattern with data center investment generally: the announcement numbers come from construction, and construction ends. A community weighing a Google data center against the noise, water use, and land it takes should be pricing in the 7,000-job steady state, not the peak.

Google's post doesn't break out how the €13 billion splits between the three new sites and the Hamina expansion, or say what each facility's power draw looks like. For a country running its grid at 96% carbon-free, the demand these sites add is the number that determines whether that percentage holds.