Google's $15 billion AI bet hits a green hurdle: Why Finland has halted work at two data centre sites?

Google's $15 billion expansion of AI infrastructure in Finland has hit an environmental roadblock, with authorities ordering work at two planned data centre sites to stop until mandatory environmental impact assessments are completed. The dispute highlights a growing challenge for the AI industry: how to build the infrastructure needed to power increasingly advanced AI systems while meeting environmental rules governing land and natural resources.

The Finnish Supervisory Agency (LVV) has ordered Tuike Finland, a company representing Google, to suspend preparatory work at sites in Muhos and Kajaani by 23 October. The agency is investigating whether hundreds of hectares of forest were cleared without the required environmental assessment.

Google announced in September that it would invest €13 billion, or about $15 billion, in Finland's digital infrastructure over the next two years. The company has described projects spanning Muhos, Vaala, Kajaani and Hamina as its biggest investment in Europe.

Why has Finland stopped Google's data centre work?

The dispute centres on work already carried out at the planned sites.

According to Tommi Muilu, head of the LVV's environment department, trees have been removed, topsoil stripped, roads and storage areas built and drainage ditches altered.

The authority has asked Tuike Finland to explain the work and set out how it intends to proceed by 14 October. Failure to comply could lead to "enforcement proceedings", it said.

The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation has also raised concerns about the scale of the land clearance. During a visit to the Muhos site last week, its chair Hanna Halmeenpaa said "nature sites which should be preserved" had been logged in an area where more than 300 hectares had been deforested.

Finland's Minister of the Environment and Climate Sari Multala said the environmental assessment problems would likely delay the projects.