TikTok is investing €1 billion in a new data center in Finland.

      The newly established facility in Lahti is part of TikTok's €12 billion Project Clover initiative aimed at ensuring data sovereignty for European users. In 2024, Finland's defense ministry approved the initial investment for the data center without notifying elected officials, leading a former minister to publicly suggest that the project should be reevaluated.

      On Wednesday, TikTok announced its plan to invest €1 billion ($1.16 billion) in constructing a second data center in Finland. This new facility will be situated in the Kiverio district of Lahti, a city with a population of around 121,000 in southern Finland. It will start with a capacity of 50 megawatts, potentially expanding to a total of 128 megawatts. The construction is expected to wrap up within a year, with operations commencing by 2027.

      The Lahti investment marks the second data center in Finland, contributing to Project Clover, which seeks to store and process the data of over 200 million European users on European ground. TikTok's first Finnish data center, located in Kouvola, is slated to be operational by the end of 2026. Currently, European user data is secured with enhanced protections across three sites in Norway, Ireland, and the United States. The company aims to eliminate reliance on US-hosted infrastructure for European data with both Finnish investments.

      This announcement comes at a critical time, as ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, narrowly avoided a US ban in January due to data protection issues. In Europe, there is increasing regulatory and governmental pressure on social media platforms regarding the safety of children, making TikTok's multi-billion commitment to European infrastructure a necessity for business as well as a strategic political move.

      On the same day TikTok revealed the Lahti center, Greece declared it would prohibit children under 15 from using social media starting January 2027, with its prime minister urging the EU to implement similar measures.

      The political response in Finland has been mixed. The defense ministry’s approval of the first data center investment in 2024 occurred without informing elected representatives. Wille Rydman, the then-minister of economic affairs, called for a "reconsideration" of the project once it became known, citing security concerns and a perceived lack of transparency regarding TikTok’s plans. Rydman expressed his hope that TikTok's local property partner would rethink having TikTok as a tenant. Conversely, Lahti's mayor, Niko Kyynäräinen, welcomed the investment, viewing it as significant for a city of its scale.

      Finland has increasingly emerged as an attractive destination for hyperscale data center investments, drawing major players like Microsoft and Google, largely due to its cool climate, access to affordable renewable energy, and stable regulatory conditions.