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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteGoogle announced a €1 billion expansion of its Hamina data-center campus in Finland on May 20, 2024—more than $1 billion at the exchange rates around the announcement. The expansion was expected to bring Google’s cumulative investment in Hamina to about €4.5 billion; that larger figure includes earlier investment and is not the cost of the new project alone.
What Google’s $1 billion-plus announcement covers
The announced amount was in euros: Google said it would invest €1 billion to expand its existing data-center campus in Hamina, southeastern Finland. The dollar figure is an approximate currency conversion, not Google’s original commitment. The announcement described an expansion of an operating campus, not a new standalone Finnish site. Google’s announcement and Business Finland’s summary give the project amount and context.
Google has operated in Hamina since 2011. Its campus occupies a former Stora Enso paper mill site near the Gulf of Finland, where seawater is used for cooling. Google has expanded the location before. The company said the new capacity would support its digital services, but it did not publish a project-specific breakdown of server capacity, power demand, building area, or AI hardware. Google’s Hamina location page describes the site and its operations.
How to read the €4.5 billion figure
After the 2024 expansion, Google’s total investment in the Hamina campus was expected to reach about €4.5 billion. Business Finland said Google had invested €3.5 billion there before the new expansion. The €4.5 billion figure is therefore cumulative: it combines earlier investment with the announced €1 billion project, rather than describing a single 2024 spend. Yle’s report on the expansion and Business Finland’s account report these totals.
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Jobs: permanent roles versus construction impact
The expansion was expected to add about 100 permanent jobs at the Hamina site, taking site employment from roughly 400 to about 500. Separately, an impact study commissioned for the project estimated an average of approximately 4,190 jobs per year during the two-year construction period when direct, indirect, and induced employment are combined. That is an economic-impact estimate across the construction period—not 4,190 new Google employees or permanent positions. The estimate appears in the 2024 Finland impact study; employment figures were also reported by Yle.
The original reporting put the expected completion target at August 2025. That was a forecast, not confirmation that the campus expansion itself was completed by that date. Yle’s 2024 report gives the original target.
Energy, cooling, and heat recovery
Electricity and carbon-free energy claims
Google reported that the Finnish grid region serving its operations achieved 98% carbon-free energy in 2023. Google’s figure also said more than three-quarters of that percentage was matched through contracted carbon-free energy. The distinction matters: matching electricity use with contracted clean-energy generation does not mean a data center is physically off-grid or receives carbon-free electricity in every hour. These are Google-reported figures and accounting measures, not an independent assessment of the facility’s hourly power supply. Google’s location page explains its reported energy result.
Google has also said it contracted for approximately 60% of the output of Finland’s 211-megawatt Piiparinmäki wind farm, whose electricity feeds the grid serving Hamina. That is a contracted share of the wind farm’s output, not a statement that the campus is powered exclusively by that project. Google Cloud’s account of its clean-energy projects describes the arrangement.
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Using data-center heat in Hamina
The Hamina expansion included Google’s first off-site heat-recovery project in Finland. Heat produced by the data center is transferred to a heat-pump facility, which raises its temperature for use in Hamina Energia’s district-heating network. Google said the heat would be supplied to the network free of charge. The system was reported to be entering operation in August 2025, with heat scheduled to flow into the network in September. Google’s project announcement and Yle’s later report describe the plan and rollout.
Local reporting estimated the recovered heat could cover about 80% of Hamina’s district-heating demand and serve roughly 2,000 households, as well as schools and public buildings. These are estimates of potential coverage, not a guarantee of year-round output: useful heat demand varies, and heat pumps require electricity. The project may reduce reliance on natural gas, but the amount of fuel or cost avoided depends in part on heat-pump operating costs and local conditions. Yle’s expansion report gives the demand estimate, while its report on local heating effects discusses household coverage and expected benefits.
Why Hamina—and Finland—fit data-center development
Hamina combines an existing industrial site, access to the Gulf of Finland for cooling, and a local district-heating network that can use recovered heat. More broadly, Google and Finnish officials have cited Finland’s electricity infrastructure, access to renewable generation, cool climate, available industrial land, and investment environment as advantages for data centers. These factors make Finland attractive to this project; they do not establish that it is always cheaper or greener than other locations. Yle’s coverage of the investment rationale, its Hamina report, and Google’s site information provide the cited context.
The trade-off is that data centers consume substantial electricity and can place demands on local infrastructure. Waste-heat recovery can make use of some of that energy, but it does not erase the facility’s electricity use, land impacts, or other environmental costs. The Hamina project’s employment figures also illustrate why headline investment totals should not be read as a direct measure of permanent local jobs.
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Kajaani and Muhos are separate, unconfirmed proposals
Google’s Hamina expansion should not be conflated with its separate plans for potential sites in Kajaani and Muhos. In November 2024, Finland authorized the state forest agency Metsähallitus to sell Google four land parcels totaling about 1,400 hectares. The reported purchase value was approximately €27 million. The land was intended for potential future data-center development, but buying land was not a construction commitment. Metsähallitus’ announcement and Yle’s report describe the sale.
In October 2025, Finnish reporting said the plans were on hold while the government’s proposed changes to data-center electricity-tax treatment were clarified. As of March 3, 2026, preparatory forestry work had begun, but Google had not made a final investment decision to build the facilities. Site preparation, land ownership, and a final decision to construct are different stages. The eventual scale, schedule, electricity demand, and employment impact of the proposed sites were not confirmed. Yle’s report on the pause and its March 2026 status report document the distinction.
What the investment means for Finland
The Hamina expansion is a confirmed corporate investment announcement with potential regional benefits: construction activity, additional permanent site roles, supplier spending, and a new source of heat for the municipal network. The scale of those benefits should be kept separate from the project’s headline capital cost and from impact-study estimates. At the same time, electricity demand, tax policy, grid capacity, land use, and the lasting number of local jobs remain important considerations. The proposed Kajaani and Muhos developments show how a company can acquire sites and begin preparation without committing to build.
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