Finnish data center project developer Polarnode and Dutch AI cloud company Nebius are jointly building a 310 megawatt data center campus in Lappeenranta, Southeast Finland. Construction of the large scale project is already underway.
Construction work has already started in the Pajarila district of Lappeenranta, and the first phase of the data center capacity is expected to go live in 2027. At full 310 megawatt capacity, the site is said to be among the largest AI optimized data centers in Europe.
Polarnode is a Finnish owned company whose founders, Mikko Toivanen and Kalle Pykälä, have previously prepared, financed, built, operated, and owned over one billion euros of wind and solar power investments as founders and continuing owners of renewable energy company Ilmatar. Polarnode has already announced large scale data center projects in Nokia, Pori, and Kuopi.
“It is fantastic that the first data center project in Lappeenranta and its surrounding area has advanced to the construction phase on an accelerated schedule, and that a leading AI cloud company Nebius will be operating the campus. In terms of scale, the project is historic, and this major investment is excellent news for the whole of Southeast Finland and, of course, highly significant at a national level as well,” says Mikko Toivanen, Chairman of the Board of Polarnode.
Nebius is building a full-stack AI cloud platform to empower AI innovators to accelerate breakthroughs across healthcare and life sciences, financial services, robotics and physical AI, and other critical industries. The company aims to secure more than 3 gigawatts of contracted power capacity by the end of 2026. Globally, Nebius currently serves customers such as Meta and Microsoft.
“We have been building in Finland for many years and are pleased to be expanding our presence here. Lappeenranta represents a significant addition to our global AI infrastructure build-out, and will make a significant contribution to achieving our capacity goals,” Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of Nebius, said.
“There is currently extremely strong demand for Nordic locations in the data center market, and Finland has the opportunity to become a hub for successful and sustainable data center business in Europe. We want to help enable the growth of the data center industry and bring new investments here. Finland is a highly attractive location for data centers: it offers clean and affordable energy and the possibility to significantly increase renewable power generation, a robust power transmission grid, and a cool climate that reduces power use for cooling and enables highly efficient, low-water or even water-free cooling solutions. Vocational schools and universities are actively developing their curricula to meet the needs of the data center industry, and the strong infrastructure that includes opportunities to capture and reuse excess heat, good transport links, and a safe and stable operating environment,” Polarnode Head of Technology Lauri Ikonen, who previously served as site lead for Google’s Hamina data center, said.
Economic impact
During the construction phase, the project is expected to create around 700 direct jobs in highly specialized construction roles, predominantly in the Lappeenranta area, in addition to several hundred indirect jobs through subcontractors. Once operational, the data center will employ more than 100 permanent staff and create hundreds of additional indirect jobs in operations and maintenance.
“The broad technology and employment impacts generated by the investment will extend not only to the data center itself, but also to the AI ecosystem and AI enabled companies, the academic community in Lappeenranta, and the surrounding infrastructure as a whole. The investment strengthens Finland’s position as a hub for AI computing and significantly supports European data sovereignty. Polarnode’s ambition is to anchor the benefits of the data center industry firmly in Finland and to act as a strong local operator that creates jobs and long term value by using local service providers,” Toivanen says.
City of Lappeenranta Mayor Tuomo Sallinen believes that the major investment will enhance the appeal of Lappeenranta and the surrounding region both nationally and internationally. “Lappeenranta offers an increasingly attractive environment for innovation, with our universities playing a key role in developing top talent tailored to the needs of high-tech industries. The new data center will position our city at the forefront of Finland’s AI ecosystem and help meet Europe’s growing demand for artificial intelligence for decades to come. We’re proud that this project is being realized in Lappeenranta and in Finland, built sustainably on clean energy and driven largely by Finnish expertise.”
