North Ostrobothnia's data center story is Google in Muhos, a municipality of about 9,000 people. Google bought land there in 2024, and in early March 2026 the municipal council approved the Pyhänsivu-Leppiniemi local detailed plan, which reserves more than 600 hectares for data centres and other industry with nearly two million square metres of permitted building space. Current plans call for nine server halls. On September 9, 2026, Google announced that Muhos is one of four Finnish sites, with Hamina, Kajaani and Vaala, in a €13 billion, two-year investment in data centres and supporting infrastructure that it called its largest single investment in Europe; Prime Minister Petteri Orpo welcomed it. Google has not given a megawatt figure for Muhos.
Work is already visible. Forest clearance at the Pyhänsivu site began in the spring, and up to 30,000 loads of crushed stone were expected by the end of November, delivered around the clock roughly every five minutes. Tapani Ervasti, chair of the municipal executive board, compared the volume with that used for the Hailuoto bridge, which took 18 months to move where Muhos is doing it in under six, called the announcement "an enormous thing for Muhos," and estimated 2,000 to 3,000 construction workers and up to 1,000 jobs once running. Under a land use agreement reported by Yle, Google is to pay the municipality €26 million once the plan takes legal effect and the municipality starts building roads and utilities to the site.
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The plan is not yet in force. One appeal has been lodged with the administrative court by a private individual, who argues, according to Yle, that the plan did not adequately study the effects on nature and suspects that the €26 million agreement steered the zoning; the appeal delays both the works and the payment. Municipal manager Kimmo Hinno declined to comment on it. In September the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation told the news agency STT it suspected illegal logging at the Muhos and Kajaani sites, where trees were felled before environmental impact assessments were complete, and asked for construction in Muhos to be suspended until the assessment is done; the Permits and Supervision Agency has opened an investigation. Google said the felling complied fully with the Forest Act. Association chair Hanna Halmeenpää said it was either gross incompetence by Google's Finnish project company, Tuike Finland Oy, or gross disregard for Finnish law.
Google has also promised local projects in the host municipalities, from public saunas and docks to heat pumps for low-income households, and to donate its timber proceeds locally. Anna Hannula, a senior lecturer at Tampere University, warned that such a large private role in a small municipality could create dependencies and pressure on democratic decision-making. Muhos sits in a wider cluster of big projects along the border with Kainuu, including billion-euro schemes in Kajaani and Utajärvi. The next decisions are the administrative court's ruling on the appeal and the environmental impact assessment; Ervasti has said Google has not slowed the project despite the appeal.
Projects not tied to an area
Sites whose records name no county. Everything else is on the pages listed above.
North Ostrobothnia1
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google MuhosExact site not confirmed | Proposed | Not reported |
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