Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) has announced plans to spend a record $15 billion U.S. on artificial intelligence (A.I.) infrastructure in Europe.
Specifically, Alphabet is investing 13 billion euros ($15.1 billion U.S.) into A.I. infrastructure in Finland, marking the tech giant’s largest ever investment in a European country.
Finland has emerged as a key location for data centres, with U.S. companies prizing its available land, ample water resources, and advanced power grid.
Water and energy are in short supply in many other European countries and often have to be imported from other areas of the world.
Alphabet said that its Finland investment will run through 2028 and include data centres and supporting investments related to energy.
The U.S. technology giant known for its Google search engine has signed a 22-year power purchase agreement with Finnish energy company Fortum (HEL: FORTUM), sending its stock up 13% on the news.
Finland has attracted several data centre projects in recent months, leading some analysts to dub the country the “Texas of Europe,” referring to the U.S. state that has a lot of data centres.
Along with Fortum, Alphabet said that it will “work to identify new business models to improve the commercial viability of potential new nuclear reactors” at a site in southern Finland.
“The value of the data economy extends far beyond direct investment into spurring innovation, research, and development,” said Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo in a news release.
GOOGL stock has risen 41% over the last 12 months to trade at $338.36 U.S. per share.
