Published 2026-09-12 · Event 2026-03-31

Nebius announces a Lappeenranta AI factory of up to 310 MW; first customer capacity is a 2027 target

On 31 March 2026 Nebius said it would construct an AI factory in Lappeenranta, Finland, with capacity of up to 310 MW and first customer capacity expected in 2027. Closed-loop liquid cooling is described, and heat recovery is an opportunity to donate excess heat to a local district-heating network. Up to 310 MW is not energised, and the factory is not a Swedish hall.

Nebius’s 31 March 2026 notice is the dated operator source used here. It announces construction of a new AI factory in Lappeenranta with capacity of up to 310 MW. First capacity is expected to be available to customers in 2027. The City of Lappeenranta’s Pajarila page, published the same day, places the buildings south of Highway 6 on two plots totalling 41 hectares and repeats the 310 MW fully-deployed wording. Those are Finnish announcement and municipal-location sentences. They are not a commissioning certificate.

The 310 MW figure must keep its qualifier. In the Nebius notice it is capacity of up to 310 MW for a dedicated AI factory when fully deployed. It is not occupied IT load, not a Finnish reserved import and not a heat-recovery rating. The same notice says Nebius recently expanded its first Finnish data center in Mäntsälä up to 75 MW, completed earlier that year, and is targeting more than 3 GW of contracted power by the end of 2026. Adding 75, 310 and 3,000 would invent a total the notice does not calculate. Contracted group power is not Lappeenranta energization.

Cooling and heat sit in the designed band. Servers will be cooled using a closed-loop liquid cooling system so the factory need not rely on water intake from local supplies. As in Mäntsälä, the cooling system will be designed to integrate a heat-recovery system, opening the opportunity for excess server heat to be donated to the local district-heating network. Designed to integrate and opening the opportunity are not a named Lappeenranta offtaker. The Mäntsälä sentences about about 4,000 tonnes of CO₂e avoided in 2025 and around 10 percent lower heating costs stay in Mäntsälä.

The campus is a multi-building site on a ca. 100-acre industrial plot in South Karelia. Construction-phase employment of up to 700 skilled jobs and around 100 permanent roles once operational are company expectations. They do not identify a Swedish landlord, a Swedish colocation hall or a Nordic transmission reservation that can be reused in SE1–SE4. Cerebras’s later Mikkeli notice and Pure DC’s later Seinäjoki launch remain separate Finnish rows.

DataCenterSweden records 31 March 2026 as a Finnish AI-factory announcement. No Swedish project identifier is attached. The 310 MW up-to sentence is not written into any Swedish capacity cell. The August Fira construction note is a later contractor paper, not a restatement of this announcement.

Why it matters

An AI-factory headline with a 310 MW figure is easy to relocate onto a Swedish map. The March notice is usable only if up to, 2027 and designed heat stay Finnish — and if Mäntsälä’s 75 MW is not added in.

What remains unknown

The notice does not publish a Finnish grid agreement, a named Lappeenranta heat buyer, an occupied-load reading or a Swedish site.

Sources