Business Finland chief urges tougher terms for data centres
Friday 9th October 2026 on 04:45 in
Finland
Finland should seek wider economic benefits from data centre investors, Business Finland director general Lassi Noponen says, arguing that municipalities need national support in negotiations. Yle reports that he wants companies to contribute more than small local amenities.
Noponen compared current municipal demands with Meta’s involvement in carbon capture in the Stockholm region, saying it was on a different scale from providing “lights on a running trail”. Google, for example, is building saunas in Muhos and solar panels in Kajaani.
Municipalities currently negotiate with data centre developers, seeking tax revenue and other local benefits. Noponen says those talks need national coordination because individual municipalities lack the leverage to secure the wider commitments he wants.
He says investors could be required to carry out research and product development in Finland, and to make computing capacity available to Finnish universities. Bringing new electricity generation to the country is also important, but it should be only one part of the requirements.
Noponen sees a way to link access to electricity to commitments that benefit Finland. A legal change underway would allow national grid operator Fingrid to prioritise applicants for new grid connections. Research and development, or commitments to buy components and services from Finnish companies, could improve a data centre developer’s position in the queue.
He pointed to Finland’s power electronics industry, companies that build cooling systems and other subcontractors as potential suppliers. Data centre construction already creates work for the construction sector and local hotels, but Noponen says those effects do not last long.
As head of the state-owned Business Finland, which advises and assists foreign companies looking to invest in the country, Noponen says the right conditions could support a broader data economy. He describes data centres as factories that can drive related services and software development.