Estonia’s Foreign Trade and Information Technology Minister Kaimar Karu has officially launched the construction of the first phase of MCF Group Estonia OÜ's data center campus.

The €100m ($107m) facility will be built in the Saue municipality of Estonia. The first of three phases will consist of a 6MW data center which, will cost €30m ($32m) and consist of a three-story building containing 14,000 sq m (150,000 sq ft) of floor space, when it goes live in 2021.

According to Minister Karu, the campus is important Estonia, serving as a safe place for both local start-ups and global giants to settle in.

“The fact that the largest data center in the Baltic States is going to be built in Estonia shows that investors believe in Estonia’s IT capabilities, including cybersecurity.

"The sum invested in the center is substantial, but the potential impact of the project is going to be far greater - strengthening our position in the region and opening up new possibilities to compete internationally," Karu said.

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Minister Kaimar Karu and MCF CEO Kurt Evert – MCF Estonia

Five years in the making

DCD reported back in January of the joint Finnish and Estonian project, which was first launched in 2015.

The site will supposedly be modular with private equipment spaces for specific clients.

“We picked the location on the border of the Harku and Saue municipalities after careful consideration, based on security, existing data, and energy connections, as well as good transport links with the harbor, airport and city center,” MCF group's CEO Kurt Evert said.

The first building will accommodate up to 45,000 servers and two more buildings of a similar size are planned for the location. Altogether, the campus in Saue will hold three data centers holding a total of 135,000 servers.