Google drives Finland’s data center boom with largest European investment

Google has picked Finland for the biggest single bet it has ever made in Europe. The company announced on September 9, 2026, that it will invest at least €13 billion ($15.1 billion) in AI infrastructure and data centers across the country. There is one complication. A month after the announcement, Finnish regulators told Google to stop work at two of its new sites. Where the €13 billion is going The spending is scheduled to land over roughly two years, covering 2027 to 2028. It will fund three entirely new data centers in Kajaani, Muhos, and Vaala. Google will also expand its existing campus in Hamina, which has been running since 2009. For scale, Google had already put €4.5 billion into Hamina before this announcement. The new pledge is nearly three times that figure, and it is described as a floor rather than a ceiling. The jobs projections are hefty. The investment is expected to support more than 37,000 jobs during the construction phase, with approximately 16,000 of those directly in construction work. Once the facilities are operational, the project is expected to sustain around 7,000 ongoing jobs. Those positions are projected to pay wages approximately 24% above the Finnish...