Cutting corners: Google recently announced a major expansion of its data center footprint in Finland. The US company plans to invest billions in the new infrastructure but is allegedly moving a bit too quickly with its forest-clearing plans. Regulators are now looking into the matter, and the outcome could have far-reaching consequences for the broader market.
Google was apparently so eager to build its new data center infrastructure in Finland that it began bulldozing large swaths of forest before the required environmental review of the full plan was complete. The work could now be suspended, just as other major data center projects are being delayed in the US and elsewhere around the world.
The issue surfaced last month, when Finland's Permit and Supervision Agency (Lupa- ja valvontavirasto, or LVV) asked Tuike Finland Oy (TFO) to explain its actions. TFO is Google's local company for the Finnish data center project, for which Mountain View is investing €13 billion in new AI-focused infrastructure.
In theory, TFO is supposed to operate in an environmentally friendly manner, with specific measures covering energy sustainability, job creation, and support for the local environment. Public reports cited by the LVV indicate that around 300 hectares of Finnish forest, roughly 420 football fields, had already been cleared before the project's environmental impact could be properly assessed.
Google argues that the forest clearing complied fully with Finnish laws and regulations. The site was properly surveyed before the bulldozers moved in, it said, so that no high-value environmental areas would be damaged. According to Hanna Halmeenpää, chair of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, things are not going quite the way Google describes.
Halmeenpää said satellite imagery shows that areas that should have been protected have already been leveled. Beyond the loss of so much forest, the outcome could be dire for wildlife preservation. She is asking the LVV to halt the entire construction site so that authorities can determine whether Google tried to bring the forest down without first obtaining formal approval.
When it comes to environmental protection standards, Finland is one of the highest-rated countries in the world. Large data center buildouts like the one TFO is pursuing carry a significant environmental cost, both in physical land consumption and power requirements.
Google may be moving faster than the procedures of local environmental authorities, but communities are increasingly voicing their dissatisfaction with the unchecked expansion of Big Tech's AI data center plans. Most likely, sending chips into space will not ease the distrust of AI infrastructure that these mega-corporations are eagerly fostering down there.