France's Sesterce Plans $11B AI Data Centre in Finland

French AI infrastructure group Sesterce said on Thursday it plans to build a data centre site in Finland costing more than €10 billion ($11.21 billion), the biggest bet yet by the little-known French firm and the latest sign of Europe's accelerating AI buildout.

The project would rank among the largest foreign technology investments in the Nordic country, where abundant electricity and a cool climate have made Finland a magnet for data centre construction.

The first phase of the project, with construction planned to start in 2026, will have a capacity of 200 megawatts, Sesterce said in a statement. Capacity is expected to increase to 600 megawatts in a second phase.

The company said it already has an anchor customer for the project, which will be built in Jamsa in central Finland on the site of a former paper mill that closed in 2021 — part of a pattern of reusing shuttered industrial sites for AI infrastructure.

Over the longer term, Sesterce aims to build more than 1 gigawatt of AI capacity in Finland, expanding on existing industrial sites in line with market demand.

Sesterce's announcement lands in the middle of an investment wave. Google said in September it would spend at least €13 billion in Finland across 2027 and 2028, its largest single investment anywhere in Europe, spread across four towns including Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala.

The pace of construction has not come without friction. Finnish authorities recently ordered work to stop on two Google data centre sites until compulsory environmental impact assessments are completed, as opposition politicians raise concerns about power shortages and rising energy prices.

Against that backdrop, Sesterce's reuse of an existing industrial site — with an anchor customer already secured — is likely designed to smooth the path through permitting and local politics.

Sesterce was founded in 2018 by Anthony Tchakerian and Youssef El Manssouri and has grown into one of Europe's most ambitious AI infrastructure developers. The company rents GPU compute through its Sesterce Cloud platform and has committed to developing 1.5 gigawatts of compute power in France, including 1.2 million GPUs by 2030.

It is also a key partner in SoftBank Group's massive French AI infrastructure push: a joint venture majority-owned by SoftBank, formed with Sesterce, was selected to develop a 1-gigawatt AI data centre campus in Bosquel as part of a commitment worth up to €75 billion and 5 gigawatts of capacity in France.

Earlier, Sesterce committed €450 million as a first tranche for an AI data centre in Valence, France — with total investment there expected to reach €1.8 billion including hardware.

The Finland project suggests the company is now taking its playbook abroad, betting that the same demand for large-scale, sovereign-friendly AI compute that drove its French expansion will travel.