Google is going nuclear to power its next European AI build-out. Alphabet said on Wednesday it will invest at least €13 billion ($15 billion) in Finland over 2027 and 2028, expanding its Hamina data-center campus and building new sites near Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala. The keystone of the plan is a 22-year power-purchase agreement with utility Fortum that will keep the Loviisa nuclear power plant running through 2050.
Loviisa gets a hyperscale lifeline
Fortum said Loviisa — currently responsible for about 10% of Finland’s electricity — could not continue operating beyond 2030 without new capital, and that the Google PPA now provides the revenue certainty for a full upgrade programme. Under the agreement, Google will start with a smaller share of the plant’s output in 2028 and step up to 50% of Loviisa’s generating capacity from 2030 through 2049. It is the largest hyperscale nuclear PPA yet in the Nordics, echoing the wave of small modular reactor and existing-nuclear deals U.S. hyperscalers cut with NextEra at Duane Arnold and Rolls-Royce SMR in Central Europe earlier this year.
629 MW of new wind and a 94 MW battery
Google is bundling Loviisa with 629 MW of new onshore wind capacity through PPAs with green energy firms Valorem and Suomen Hyötytuuli, plus a 94 MW battery energy storage system near Kajaani that is expected to connect to the grid in late 2027. The battery is intended to smooth prices during "cold, windless periods," Google said. Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google, said the package is designed to pair every megawatt of new hyperscale load with new low-carbon supply and grid enhancements.
37,000 construction jobs, 7,000 permanent
During the construction phase, Google expects the investment to contribute an average of €3.6 billion annually to Finnish GDP and support more than 37,000 jobs, with roughly 7,000 jobs sustained once the facilities are operational. Google, which already runs seven data halls at Hamina, said it chose Finland for its near-carbon-neutral grid — about 96% of the country’s generation is described as carbon-neutral — and its established grid infrastructure. The deal follows fresh U.S. capacity announcements from Cerebras’s Mikkeli AI data center, underscoring Finland’s emergence as the Nordics’ premier AI infrastructure hub.
Reporting based on coverage from Google, Fortum, Reuters and The Register.