Google Kajaani data center, Kajaani, Kainuu

Google plans a new data center at Otanmäki in Kajaani, in Finland's Kainuu region, one of three new Finnish data centers in a €13 billion investment the company announced on September 9, 2026. Google called the program, which also expands its existing Hamina data center and adds sites in Vaala and Muhos, its largest single investment in Europe, with construction expected in 2027 and 2028. The regional paper Kainuun Sanomat reported that a data center and a battery system would be built at the Otanmäki site within two years.

Google contracted a new 94-megawatt battery system near its Kajaani-region operations, due to start in late 2027, to help balance the Finnish grid. Google bought land in Kajaani and Muhos for more than €27 million in November 2024; the Otanmäki plot is about four times the size of the nearly 200-hectare site where XTX Markets is building in Kajaani, Yle reported. Data Center Map lists the site on Ryynäsentie in Otanmäki. In April 2026, a planner from the consultancy Sweco told a public meeting on the site's zoning plan that Google had dropped plans to cool the data center with water from Lake Oulujärvi, Kainuun Sanomat reported.

In September 2026, Finland's Licensing and Supervision Agency began examining whether logging at Google's Kajaani and Muhos sites broke environmental rules, after the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation raised concerns. The agency asked Google's Finnish project company Tuike Finland Oy, Muhos municipality and the city of Kajaani for information, as forestry work had started at the sites months earlier while environmental impact assessments were unfinished. Google communications manager Michiel Sallaets said trees on Google-owned land in Muhos and Kajaani were felled in full compliance with the Forest Act, and the company said areas of environmental value were protected.

Google also plans a €31 million community fund for Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala over four years. The environmental impact assessments for the Kajaani and Muhos sites were still unfinished when the agency opened its review. The zoning plan for the Otanmäki site was still going through public meetings in April 2026. "This means jobs, lots of jobs for Finns across Finland," Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said at the announcement.