Google's €13B Finland AI bet sparks security concerns amid energy boom

Google announced Wednesday that it would invest €13 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure across Finland and commit to purchasing half the output of one of the country's nuclear power plants for the next 22 years. The deal, which represents the tech giant's largest single investment in the European Union to date, arrives as Alphabet—Google's parent company—races to keep pace in the global AI competition, having already committed roughly $200 billion globally this year to infrastructure and development.

Finland has become an attractive destination for data center expansion. The country's Arctic climate reduces the cooling costs for energy-intensive servers, and its population of just 6 million has meant less local opposition than projects face in the United States and elsewhere. Google itself has been present since 2009, when it converted a shuttered paper mill in the coastal city of Hamina into a data center and has steadily expanded operations there. Microsoft and ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok, have also established facilities in Finland, with dozens of data centers now under construction across the nation.

For Finland's right-wing Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, the investment arrives at a moment of economic pressure. The country is grappling with record unemployment and sluggish growth, making data center projects a policy priority. Google's announcement claims the investment will inject €3.6 billion into Finland's gross domestic product and generate 37,000 jobs—7,000 permanent positions and the remainder during construction phases, with spending scheduled across 2027 and 2028. The company says the funds will support new data centers, electrical grid upgrades, and clean energy and battery projects serving its chatbot, search, and mapping services. Orpo embraced the announcement, calling it "historical" and positioning Finland as "a front-runner in digitalization and AI." He sought to address concerns about energy costs and resource scarcity, stating that Google remained "committed to ensuring that electricity production in Finland remains sufficient and that prices remain under control."

The nuclear component of the deal is substantial. Google will purchase 50 percent of the energy output from Finland's Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant under a 22-year agreement, according to plant operator Fortum. The arrangement effectively secures the plant's future: without the deal, Fortum indicated the facility would have ceased operations by 2030, but the contract now allows it to continue until 2050. The Loviisa plant currently supplies roughly 10 percent of Finland's electricity. News of the agreement sent Fortum's stock up 15.5 percent, marking its highest level in more than four years and making it the day's top performer on European exchanges. Google President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat described the arrangement as "bring your own power"—the company's first nuclear energy deal outside the United States.

Yet the expansion carries risks that extend beyond energy and environmental concerns. Finland's Security and Intelligence Service, known as SUPO, has issued explicit warnings that foreign-owned data centers present potential security vulnerabilities for the Nordic nation. The agency worries that municipalities, drawn by economic opportunity, may underweight security considerations. While SUPO acknowledges that data center investment is fundamentally beneficial to Finland, it has flagged the possibility that authoritarian states—Russia and China among them—could exploit such infrastructure. The concern is concrete: hostile actors might attempt to use Finnish facilities to circumvent international technology sanctions and export restrictions, such as those currently preventing the sale of advanced semiconductors to China. Finland's data center boom is forecast to drive energy consumption up by 40 percent in coming years, according to network operator Fingrid, adding another layer of complexity to the security calculus as the country weighs growth against vulnerability.