Nordic data center firm Scale42 is looking to develop a data center campus in Western Finland.

The Municipality of Liperi and Scale42 this week announced they are negotiating the leasing and sale of approximately nine hectares of land located in the new Välikangas industrial area for a data center development.

Construction of the data center is planned to begin at the earliest in the beginning of 2027. The first phase could offer 60MW and see some €800 million ($936.2m) invested.

William Tasney, CEO of Scale42, said: “The Välikangas industrial area is an exceptional location that strengthens our growing presence in Eastern Finland alongside our project in Kitee. From the outset, Liperi’s municipal leadership and local stakeholders have shown a strong commitment to enabling sustainable digital infrastructure and long-term regional growth.”

Scale42 is led by the founders of Fjord Power and Hydrokraft (now AI cloud firm Nscale) and looking to develop multiple data center sites across the Nordics.

Liperi is a municipality outside Joensuu in the North Karelia region, near the country’s western border.

“The area is easy to build on and access, and it is located next to a power line,” added Pellervo Hämäläinen, Liperi’s municipal manager. “A data center is ideally suited to this industrial area, and the site also offers good conditions for the project’s possible expansion, including the distribution of waste heat, creating further opportunities for local businesses and projects. This is an economically significant project and precisely the kind of development project that was sought when zoning the new industrial area.”

On its website, the company lists seven planned developments totaling 1.3GW across Iceland, Finland, Sweden, and Norway.

In Finland, Scale42 is targeting a 60MW project in Kitee, some 75km (46.6 miles) southeast of Liperi, and another on the west coast near Kristinestad. The latter site could total more than 500MW.

In Sweden, the firm is looking to develop a 400MW campus in the north of the country near Jokkmokk. In Norway, Scale42 is targeting campuses near Sørfold (100MW) and Skibotn (15MW).

In Iceland, the firm is targeting a 50MW project near Norðurþing.