A China-backed data center company is set to establish a facility in southern Finland.

Aurora Core Technology, a Finnish subsidiary of Chinese IT provider 3 E Tech, signed an agreement with the City of Mikkeli last December to construct an approximately 101,071 sqm (one million sq ft) data center in Pellosniemi, which is an industrial area south of Mikkeli.

As per a separate agreement also signed in December, 3 E Tech will collaborate with Finnish company Orka Technologies for the development of the data center.

3E and Orka have worked together before – the pair officially partnered for a Finnish data center project in May.

The facility is set to offer 6MW of capacity in its first year and a minimum additional capacity of 10MW annually in the coming years, and according to the city, the site is located near power infrastructure that could support a grid connection capacity of up to 50MW.

Despite the range of its businesses, which go from solar panel development to AI music generation, it is unclear whether the company has any experience with data center development.

Most of Finland’s data centers are located in the country’s capital, Helsinki.

Established operators, including the likes of Verne, Equinix, and atNorth, have a presence in Finland, while new operators such as Polarnode, FCDC, Arcem, and Hyperco are planning multiple developments across the country. International operators, including QTS, Pure, and DayOne, are also looking to develop in Finland.