Around 300 hectares of Finnish forest, an area roughly equivalent to 500 football fields, were cleared for a Google data-center expansion while the project’s environmental assessment was still underway.
That timing is now at the center of a regulatory inquiry.
Finland’s supervisory authority, LVV, is investigating whether Tuike Finland Oy, the company handling Google’s Finnish project, should have completed a legally required environmental-impact assessment before permanently converting more than 200 hectares of land. The investigation is ongoing, and authorities have not yet concluded that any law was broken.
The forest clearing is part of a much larger expansion by Google. According to Reuters, the company plans to invest at least €13 billion in Finnish AI infrastructure by 2028, with projects spanning data centers in Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala. Google has described the investment as its biggest single commitment in Europe.
Google maintains that the forestry work followed Finnish law. In comments to AFP, the company said tree felling was carried out in accordance with Forestry Act requirements. It also said ecological surveys were conducted before work started and that areas considered particularly valuable from an environmental standpoint were protected.
Environmental groups, however, say the situation looks different on the ground.
Hanna Halmeenpää, chair of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, said satellite images indicate that four areas marked as nature sites in the local plan were cleared. According to her, the work could affect wildlife movement and bird populations in the area.
The association has called on LVV to suspend activity at the site while the legal questions are examined. So far, there has been no reported order to stop the project.
At the heart of the dispute is a simple but important question: can a major development move ahead with forestry-related permissions while a broader environmental assessment is still being completed?
The issue highlights a growing challenge surrounding the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. Behind the servers and software are enormous physical projects that require land, electricity, buildings and natural resources. When construction moves ahead before environmental reviews are finished, concerns over ecological damage can arise before regulators have reached a final decision.
LVV’s investigation will ultimately have to determine whether compliance with Finland’s Forestry Act was enough in this case, or whether the project also needed to complete the wider environmental-impact assessment before the land could be permanently transformed.
The answer could have implications beyond this particular data center, especially as Europe faces growing demand for AI infrastructure and regulators grapple with how to balance that expansion with environmental protections.