Nordic data center firm Hyperco is looking to build a new campus outside Helsinki in Espoo, Finland.

The company is also developing a facility in eastern Finland to serve TikTok and planning two other developments.

Hyperco in Espoo

Helsingin Sanomat reports the Ministry of Defence confirmed to the publication that it has granted Hyperco permission to purchase a property in Espoo.

The Helsinki Times reports the company is targeting a 5.4-hectare site in the Koskelonniitty area near Ring Road III. Few further details are available.

The land in question is owned by the Swedish-speaking real estate investment company Svenska småbruk och egna hem. The firm confirmed to the Times it signed a preliminary agreement with Hyperco in 2022 but said no final deal has been made.

Espoo city officials appeared to be caught off-guard by the news.

“This came as a surprise,” city environment director Olli Isotalo said, adding that the city has not held discussions with the current or potential landowners.

Founded in 2020, Hyperco announced plans to invest €200 million ($243.4 million) in data centers in the Nordics in June 2021. It was acquired by Edgnex, the data center arm of Dubai real estate firm Damac, in April.

In June 2022, the company acquired its first data center from Finnish family office TS-Yhtymä for more than €35 million ($36.4m). At the time the 16,900 sqm (181,900 sq ft) property, in Vantaa, had two long-term tenants: Equinix and Thales.

In December 2022, it said it was building two additional data centers in the Helsinki region, offering an additional capacity of 50MW.

The company’s previous investors include NREP, one of the largest real estate funds in the Nordics, and Varma, one of Finland’s biggest pension funds.

New Hyperco data center to serve TikTok

Hyperco also has projects in Pyhäjoki, Lohja, and Kouvola.

The company acquired 130 hectares of land in Pyhäjoki, eastern central Finland, late last year. Zoning efforts are ongoing, with local reports suggesting some 300,000 sqm (3.22 million sq ft) of floor space could be built on the plot.

Last month saw the City of Lohja approved a 217,420 sqm (2.34 million sq ft) land deal for a data center with Hyperco. Lohja is located in the Uusimaa region, west of Helsinki and Espoo. The company is planning up to 300MW of capacity.

Hyperco in May confirmed the Kouvola development is set to serve TikTok owner ByteDance. News that the social media firm was developing a site in Finland surfaced in late April.

The company has purchased 24-hectares of land in the Koria area from the city last year and acquired building permits.

Construction is set to begin soon, and the company aims to launch the first phase by end of 2026. It will offer its waste heat to the local district heating network.

“We have succeeded in generating significant international interest and investment appetite for Finland. An investment of this magnitude is an indication that Finland is seen as a reliable and competent player in the global digital ecosystem,” Hyperco CEO Aleksi Taipale said a the time.

Finnish economic affairs minister Wille Rydman, however, said the government was “surprised” by the news, and that the company might want to reconsider having TikTok as a customer.

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, launched Project Clover, an initiative to move European user data to local servers, in 2023, in response to concerns over data security raised by lawmakers.

The company now occupies three buildings at Green Mountain’s OSL2-Hamar campus in Norway. Plans for Green Mountain to provide a data center campus to TikTok were revealed in March 2023, with the first data center completed that December and initially planned to go live in Q2 of 2024. It was only in October 2024 that the company officially began moving its European data to the campus.

TikTok also has a data center in Ireland, which is part of Project Clover and came online in 2023.

Elsewhere, the company is also considering building a data center in Brazil, and has pledged to spend $8.8 billion on digital infrastructure in Thailand.