French technology company Sesterce plans to invest more than €10 billion to build a large artificial intelligence data center in Jämsä, Finland, on the site of a former paper mill that closed
French technology company Sesterce plans to invest more than €10 billion to build a large artificial intelligence data center in Jämsä, Finland, on the site of a former paper mill that closed in 2021.
Construction of the first phase is scheduled to begin in 2026, with the initial facility designed to require 200 megawatts (MW) of power. Sesterce said the site already has a major customer committed to using the facility, giving the project an anchor tenant before construction begins.
Sesterce Plans €10 Billion AI Campus in Finland: The Infrastructure Challenge
French AI infrastructure company Sesterce has announced plans to invest more than €10 billion, approximately $11 billion, in an AI computing campus in Jämsä, Finland.
The proposed development would transform the former Kaipola paper mill site into a large-scale AI infrastructure facility. Its first phase targets 200 megawatts of capacity, with construction planned to begin in 2026. A second phase would bring the campus to 600 megawatts.
Sesterce also aims to develop more than one gigawatt of AI capacity across Finland over the longer term. That wider target is not limited to the Jämsä campus.
The location matters. The former industrial site already has infrastructure, including a high-voltage electricity connection. Reusing such facilities could offer development advantages, although the project’s actual costs and construction timeline remain to be demonstrated.
Sesterce has outlined renewable-energy, cooling and water-management commitments. Their effectiveness will depend on implementation and future operating results.
The central distinction is between announced investment and delivered computing capacity. Financing arrangements, construction approvals and the timetable for bringing the full capacity online remain important uncertainties.
For Europe’s AI infrastructure ambitions, this announcement illustrates both the enormous scale of planned computing facilities and the practical challenges of turning those plans into operational capacity.
#AIInfrastructure #DataCenters
— TechSignal (@tchsignal) October 8, 2026
The company plans to eventually expand the Jämsä facility to 600 MW. Beyond the site, Sesterce aims to develop more than 1 gigawatt (GW) of AI computing capacity across Finland, using other former industrial sites that have the electricity and infrastructure needed for large-scale data centres.
Building giant AI data centres often upsets local people who worry about loud noise, heavy water use, and crowded power lines.
The announcement of Sesterce’s planned €10 billion AI data centre campus in Finland has drawn a mixed response from Finnish social media users. One Finnish user, EevaS (@eevajkl), questioned why the government had not celebrated the Sesterce announcement as loudly as it did Google’s earlier investment plans.
“Ranskalainen tekoälyinfrastruktuuriyhtiö Sesterce kertoi torstaina suunnittelevansa yli 10 miljardin euron datakeskuskampusta Kaipolan entisen paperitehtaan alueelle.” (KSML 8.10.) Miksei tätä hallitus hurraa? Kun 13 miljardin Google-hanke sai Orpon repeämään liitoksistaan?
— EevaS (@eevajkl) October 8, 2026
Another user, @FinlandiaSlava, was more skeptical about whether the promised investment would translate into an actual construction project.
@STTuutiset Toivottavasti Sesterce on tietoinen siitä, että Suomi ei ole banaanivaltio. Google ei ollut datakeskustyömaallaan eikä myöskaan Areva Olkiluodon ydinvoimalatyömaallaan.
— Slava Finlandia (@FinlandiaSlava) October 8, 2026
Other reactions focused more on the proposed location. Lemmy (@eqbullero98) described the site as a good choice because existing factory buildings and a major power connection are already available. The user argued that this could avoid the need to clear hundreds of hectares of forest for a new development.
READ ALSO: Google Increases Stake in TeraWulf, Accelerating AI Data Center Expansion with Fluidstack
The rush is being driven first by electricity. AI data centers consume far more power than conventional server facilities because thousands of high-performance chips must operate continuously. Norway has attracted OpenAI, Nscale and Aker to a planned $1 billion AI facility powered entirely by renewable energy, while Sweden is also growing its AI infrastructure as companies look for large, reliable power supplies.
The region’s climate is another advantage. AI chips generate enormous amounts of heat, making cooling a major operating cost for large computing facilities. Northern Europe’s colder temperatures allow data centre operators to use outside air and other efficient cooling systems for much of the year. This is particularly valuable for AI facilities running dense clusters of high-performance GPUs around the clock.
Companies are also finding more room to build at the scale AI requires. Norway and Sweden have large areas outside Europe’s traditional data center hubs, where developers can secure land and power for facilities requiring hundreds of megawatts. atNorth, for example, is developing a new Norwegian site that will start at 120 MW and is designed to expand to 350 MW.
In another development, a consortium backed by BlackRock and IFM Investors is in exclusive talks to acquire Stack Infrastructure’s Asia-Pacific data centre portfolio in a deal valued at between $20 billion and $25 billion. The group includes the BlackRock-backed Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), an AI infrastructure investment vehicle co-founded with Microsoft, Nvidia, xAI and MGX.
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