TikTok will become the main user of the Lahti Kiveriö data center, operating as a tenant of the data center builder, the Singaporean company Day One. The investment includes servers that store European users' videos and related data such as view counts, with the operation planned to start in 2027. In May last year, a similar-scale data center project in Kouvola, also with TikTok as the main user, sparked discussion.
Some Finnish politicians commented critically on the Kouvola project at the time, and questions arose because authorities like the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment were not informed about the main user. Lahti has learned from the Kouvola process. TikTok's manager of societal relations in Finland, Christian Hannibal, said the purpose of data centers in Finland and elsewhere in Europe is to ensure European data does not fall into the wrong hands.
We expect to create about 100 jobs directly. In addition, there will be indirect jobs. We don't have exact numbers on these yet, but we have experience elsewhere, and based on that, the number of indirect jobs will be significant in Lahti.
The reason for European investments is concerns linked to TikTok and its owner, the Chinese ByteDance, regarding data security and potential leakage of user data to China. TikTok is interested in Lahti's strong digital infrastructure, green energy supply, available workforce, and strong university. In March, it was reported that the Chinese digital giant Alibaba Cloud is also preparing a data center project in Finland, after the Chinese company established a subsidiary in Finland in February.
News agency Reuters reports that ByteDance wants to build another data center in Finland, this time in Lahti. Specific data security measures for the Lahti center and its exact environmental impacts remain unclear, and it is unknown how the timeline aligns with the Kouvola project.