Verne unveils plans for next-generation sustainable data centre campus in Finland

Verne has acquired a strategic site in Mäntsälä, Finland, unveiling plans to build its fifth Nordic data center, reinforcing the company’s position as a leader in sustainable and scalable data center solutions.

With an initial capacity of 70 MW, the Mäntsälä 10-hectare campus, a 40-minute drive from Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, will support services to data intensive enterprises and AI innovators running High Performance Compute (HPC), machine learning, and other high intensity workloads, while operating exclusively on renewable energy.

Designed for sustainability

The new facility will be built in line with Verne’s best practice design principles and expertise, which aim to maximise efficiency while helping customers reduce the environmental impact of their data center operations. In addition, the new campus will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy sources, while waste heat generated by the data center will be harnessed to power local community heating projects.

“Verne’s Mäntsälä data center campus represents a significant step in our mission to help global enterprises embrace advanced computing while at the same time reducing their impact on the environment,” said Dominic Ward, CEO, Verne. “This new site is part of our strategy of continuous growth across the Nordic region and marks our first new location following Ardian’s acquisition of Verne.”

“Finland, with its abundant clean energy, established data center industry, and highly skilled workforce, offers the perfect environment for our latest development,” continued Ward. “We are also working in close collaboration with the Mäntsälä Municipality to ensure our latest facility benefits the local area. This includes a plan to harness the waste heat from the facility to supply hot water and heating to neighbouring districts.”

"We are very pleased that Verne has chosen Mäntsälä as the location for its new data center. This investment creates excellent opportunities for the broader development of the entire region," said Mäntsälä's mayor Hannu Laurila. “Mäntsälä is seen by companies as a highly attractive place to settle – one reason for this is, of course, the location, but also our basic infrastructure with reliable power grids is very good.”

Construction of Verne’s Mäntsälä data center will commence in mid-2025 and is expected to take two years to complete. This expansion represents a strategic move in the company’s long-term plan to build out its sustainably powered data center platform, which was acquired by world-leading private investment house Ardian in early 2024. Ardian is a long-term infrastructure investor committed to the Nordics market, where it has already invested EUR 1.6+ billion, with a focus on energy transition and digital infrastructure projects. It is working with Verne to drive sustainable growth across the Nordic countries, starting with this expansion plan in Finland.

Verne’s data center platform currently includes three further facilities in Finland – in Helsinki, Pori, and Tampere, together with a substantial campus in Iceland, and a facility in Central London, which is optimised to support latency-sensitive applications. The Mäntsälä expansion marks another milestone in Verne’s mission to deliver sustainable data center solutions for the rising demands of AI and HPC workloads.