TikTok Finland data centre plans are expanding again, with the company confirming a €1 billion investment in a second site in Lahti, southern Finland, as it steps up its European data infrastructure under Project Clover. The move was announced on 7 April and would make Lahti the location of TikTok’s second large-scale Finnish data centre after Kouvola, against a backdrop of continuing European scrutiny over data protection, platform governance and the company’s links to China.
Why TikTok chose Lahti for its second Finland data centre
According to TikTok and reporting by Reuters and Yle, the new facility will be built in Lahti’s Kiveriö district and developed by the Singapore-based company DayOne. The investment is expected to total around €1 billion, while the site is planned to start at 50 megawatts and could later expand to 128 megawatts.
Yle reported that the data centre is expected to create around 100 jobs once operational, with construction work already moving forward locally. Finnish builder SRV is involved in the project’s construction phase. For Lahti, the project is one of the largest recent technology investments announced in the city.
Project Clover is pushing more European data into Nordic infrastructure
TikTok says the Lahti project is part of Project Clover, its €12 billion programme to strengthen the storage and protection of European user data. The company says the plan is designed to keep data for its more than 200 million European users inside a more tightly controlled regional framework.
TikTok has already said that European user data is stored by default in a dedicated European data enclave hosted across Norway, Ireland and the USA, with independent oversight from NCC Group. The new Finnish investment would add further capacity in the Nordics as the company tries to show regulators that it can separate European data governance from concerns linked to its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
Finland is becoming a strategic hub for data centres in Europe
Finland has become increasingly attractive for data centre investment because of its cool climate, relatively abundant low-carbon electricity and stable regulatory environment inside the EU. Business Finland has also promoted the country’s district heating networks and the potential to reuse waste heat from data centres in homes and public buildings.
That broader trend helps explain why global tech companies have been looking at Finland as a base for digital infrastructure. For TikTok, the choice also offers a Nordic location inside the EU, close to existing energy and connectivity advantages that matter for large-scale storage operations.
Security concerns from the first TikTok Finland project have not disappeared
The expansion does not remove the political concerns that followed TikTok’s first Finnish data centre announcement in Kouvola in 2025. That earlier project triggered criticism in Finland over transparency, ownership links and possible security risks, even though it received the necessary approval from the Finnish defence authorities.
Those doubts remain relevant because TikTok continues to face pressure across Europe over data access, child safety and its governance model. A second investment in Finland therefore strengthens the company’s physical presence in Europe, but it does not automatically settle the broader political debate around trust and strategic digital infrastructure.
What the second TikTok data centre means for Finland and the EU
For Finland, the announcement reinforces the country’s role as a growing Nordic base for large digital infrastructure projects. For TikTok, it is another attempt to show that European data storage is becoming more local, more visible and more aligned with EU expectations.
For the EU, however, the real test will not be the scale of the investment alone. It will be whether TikTok’s Finland data centre strategy can convince regulators and policymakers that infrastructure expansion is matched by credible guarantees on access, oversight and long-term compliance.
