Verne plans to build a large data center in Finland, its fifth in the Nordics.
The company has acquired a 10-hectare site in Mäntsälä, Finland, a 40-minute drive from Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport. It expects the facility to have a capacity of more than 70MW.
Construction is expected to start in mid-2025 and take two years to complete. The data center will use renewable power and its waste heat will be offered to the local community.
The company already operates three smaller data centers in Finland in Helsinki, Pori, and Tampere, which all came out of the 2022 acquisition of Ficolo. It also has a single location in London, UK, and a larger facility in Iceland.
The company was acquired by private investment firm Ardian in early 2024. The investor said that it would pump another $1.2bn into expanding Verne's footprint across Northern Europe.
“Verne’s Mäntsälä data center campus represents a significant step in our mission to help global enterprises embrace advanced computing while at the same time reducing their impact on the environment," Dominic Ward, Verne's CEO, said.
"This new site is part of our strategy of continuous growth across the Nordic region and marks our first new location following Ardian’s acquisition of Verne.
“Finland, with its abundant clean energy, established data center industry, and highly skilled workforce, offers the perfect environment for our latest development.”
In October, European AI data center developer Nebius announced that it, too, would build in Mäntsälä, expanding its existing facility from 25MW to 75MW.
Also in recent months, Google acquired two plots of land further to the north to build a potential data center. It currently operates a large data center campus in Hamina, which it is expanding.