What happened?
Finland's Licensing and Supervision Agency (LVV) has ordered Google subsidiary Tuike Finland Oy to stop construction on two data centers in Muhos and Kajaani. The order will remain in place until environmental impact assessments (EIA) are completed, following allegations that more than 740 acres of Finnish forest were cleared for the project.
What is banned?
The LVV halted tree and topsoil removal as well as activities such as excavation, quarrying, crushing, soil mass transfers, ditching, and road and storage construction. The subsidiary may only continue planning, measurement, and soil surveys that have minimal impact.
What Google says
A Google spokesperson said the company understands the concerns and has fallen short of its own high standards in this instance. The company said it acted in good faith under the Forestry Act, ran nature surveys, and is advancing landscaping and biodiversity plans that include tree planting across 130 hectares at Muhos.
Why it matters
Finland is sometimes called the "Texas of Europe" for data centers thanks to its abundant land and electricity supply. Europe is trying to catch up with the U.S. and China with a $30 billion investment and a target of 100,000 AI GPUs per site. Yet Denmark has paused new data center connection requests, and Amazon's projects on the continent face delays of up to seven years. This stop-work order is not about electricity supply but about permitting.
