Google invests $670 million to expand its data centre in Finland

Tech companies are racing to build more such facilities as businesses and individuals increasingly store more data online on so-called cloud platforms.

The expansion in Finland comes as Google is pushing into video gaming with its new streaming service Stadia (REUTERS)

Google will pay about 600 million euros ($670 million) to build a data centre in Finland amid a push by its parent Alphabet Inc. to invest heavily in servers and feed demand for faster access to files and media.

The new construction will add to Google's existing data-centre complex in Hamina on the south coast of Finland, taking the company's total investment there to 1.4 billion euros, it said in an emailed statement on Monday.

Tech companies are racing to build more such facilities as businesses and individuals increasingly store more data online on so-called cloud platforms. Google offers consumers services including email, maps, search and photos, as well as videos on its YouTube website.

The Mountain View, California-based company currently has 58 data centres around the world. In Europe, it has invested more than 4.3 billion euros in five such facilities since 2007 and its accrued capital expenditures for the first quarter came to $4.5 billion, comprising spending on data centres, servers and office facilities.

The expansion in Finland comes as Google is pushing into video gaming with its new streaming service Stadia, which will allow players to access the action through the web without expensive consoles or personal computers. Stadia runs through the company's YouTube video-streaming platform and requires the data-centre network to function.

Google's Hamina complex will be powered by renewable energy acquired from three new wind farms in the Nordic nation, it said last year.