Google will buy up to half the output of Finland's Loviisa nuclear plant under a deal announced Wednesday, part of a €13 billion ($15 billion) build-out of data centers and supporting infrastructure the company plans across Finland through 2028. The agreement with Finnish utility Fortum is Google's first nuclear power-purchase agreement outside the United States.
The power deal starts in 2028 at reduced capacity and ramps up to 50% of Loviisa's output from 2030 through 2049, lining up with an extension of the plant's operating license through 2050. Fortum says the arrangement helps unlock roughly €1 billion in investment needed to keep the two Soviet-era VVER-440 reactors — in service since 1977 and 1981, and currently supplying more than a tenth of Finland's electricity — running for decades longer. A 38-megawatt capacity upgrade already underway at the plant is due to finish in 2028, with a further 10 megawatts expected as part of the new agreement.
Chasing Power for AI
Google's wider Finnish investment covers data center and infrastructure projects in Hamina, Muhos, Vaala and Kajaani, including a 94-megawatt battery storage system at the Kajaani site. The buildout reflects a broader scramble among AI companies to lock down electricity supplies as new data centers strain national grids; Google has increasingly turned to nuclear power, including U.S. small-reactor deals, to secure carbon-free baseload capacity that can run around the clock.
"A key enabler for this growth are long-term partnerships, such as the one we sealed today between Fortum and Google," Fortum chief executive Markus Rauramo said in a statement. A Google representative, Aris Karcanias, said the company was "doing our part to preserve a critical energy source" by supporting the plant's life extension.
The Loviisa agreement is likely to draw attention as a template for how AI companies secure power outside the U.S., where similar nuclear tie-ups have already reshaped plans for aging plants. For Finland, which has leaned on nuclear power for grid stability as it phases out fossil generation, the deal offers a funding path to keep an existing plant online rather than building new capacity from scratch — a faster and cheaper route to meeting the additional demand that Google's data centers will bring.
