Google to invest 3 billion euros in European data centers

By Tarmo Virki

(Reuters) - Google will make an additional investment of 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) over the next two years to expand its European data centers, Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said in Finland.

The investment plan includes an additional 600 million euros investment in the Hamina data center in Finland, bringing total investment in the site to 2 billion euros, Finland's Prime Minister Antti Rinne told the joint news conference.

"This is fantastic news for Finland," Rinne said.

Google already has one data center in Hamina, where it invested 800 million euros to convert an old paper mill. It said in May it would invest 600 million euros in a new data center on the same site.

Google bought the site from paper firm Stora Enso in 2009. The location is close to the Russian border and uses seawater from the Gulf of Finland to reduce energy used in cooling.

Google's other European data centers are located in the Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki in Tallinn; Editing by Jason Neely and Edmund Blair)