Nebius (NBIS.US) increases European computing power! "Making a move" in Finland to build a super data center.

Cloud computing service provider Nebius (NBIS.US) announced on Tuesday that with the increasing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) computing power, the company is accelerating its expansion in Europe and will be constructing a new AI data center in Finland. The data center, located in Lappeenranta, Finland, will have a capacity of up to 310 megawatts, with a projected value of over $10 billion. The company stated that once operational, this data center will become one of the largest in Europe and is expected to begin providing initial services to clients in 2027. As of the time of writing, Nebius' stock rose over 2% in pre-market trading on Tuesday. Nebius CEO Arkady Volozh stated in a statement, "We have been building in Finland for many years, and we are pleased to expand our presence here. Lappeenranta is an important addition to our global AI infrastructure construction and will make a significant contribution to achieving our capacity goals." Nebius recently signed supply contracts totaling over $40 billion with Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) and Meta (META.US). The company stated that the new data center will be used for training AI models and running AI applications and will not be tied to any single customer. Finnish developer Polarnode has been constructing the data center in Lappeenranta. Polarnode's CEO stated that the data center is one of the largest infrastructure projects in Finland to date and will support data sovereignty in Europe. Finland is considered an ideal location for building data centers due to its lower energy prices, renewable energy supply, and cold climate which helps reduce cooling costs. Nebius believes that Lappeenranta has all the key conditions, such as fast access to land and sufficient grid capacity. This facility in Lappeenranta will be Nebius' largest project outside of the United States, surpassing the 240-megawatt project announced near Lille, France in February of this year. The company's largest facility currently operational in Europe is also in Finland, in Mntsl, with a capacity of 75 megawatts. It is worth mentioning that Nebius announced this project amidst a flurry of AI infrastructure construction plans across Europe. French AI startup Mistral AI announced on Monday that it secured a $830 million debt financing for operating a data center near Paris. This follows the company's 1.2 billion (approximately $1.38 billion) plan announced earlier this year to build data centers and computing facilities in Sweden. UK startup Nscale announced earlier this month that it raised $2 billion at a valuation of $146 billion and plans to develop AI data centers in the UK, Europe, and the US. Meanwhile, in 2025, MGX, Bpifrance, Mistral, and NVIDIA Corporation announced plans to build a 1.4-gigawatt AI park in France. Bruker Corporation Field also announced plans to invest up to $9.9 billion to build an AI data center in Sweden. OpenAI announced last year that it will collaborate with Nscale to build a "Stargate-like" AI data center in Norway. However, despite the intense commitments to AI computing investments in Europe, the region still faces serious challenges in infrastructure construction. Energy prices in Europe are higher than in the US, and projects face difficulties in accessing the grid or obtaining alternative energy sources.