Google partners with Fortum Oyj to secure €1B investment for Finnish nuclear plant

Google just locked in its first nuclear power deal outside the US, and it’s a big one. The tech giant signed a 22-year power purchase agreement with Finnish utility Fortum Oyj on September 9, committing to buy up to 50% of the output from Finland’s Loviisa nuclear power plant.

The deal gives Fortum the revenue certainty it needs to pour roughly €1 billion into extending the plant’s operating life until 2050. For Google, it secures a massive block of reliable, low-carbon electricity to power what’s shaping up to be an enormous AI and data center buildout across Finland.

The numbers behind the deal

The PPA kicks off with reduced capacity starting in 2028, ramping up to full volumes by 2030 and running through 2049. Google will absorb up to half of everything Loviisa produces during that window.

That’s a significant chunk of Finnish power generation. Loviisa currently supplies more than 10% of Finland’s total electricity and employs around 580 people.

Fortum’s investment program for the plant totals approximately €1 billion, though around €700 million of that still awaits final board approval. Among the upgrades already underway: a 38 MW capacity uprate expected to finish by 2028.

Investors clearly liked what they saw. Fortum’s stock jumped between 8% and 15% after the announcement.

Google’s Finnish spending spree

The nuclear PPA is just one piece of a much larger bet Google is making on Finland. Alongside the power agreement, the company committed to investing at least €13 billion (roughly $15.1 billion) in AI and data center infrastructure across the country during 2027 and 2028.

The construction phase alone is projected to add €3.6 billion to Finland’s GDP. Once operations begin, the facilities are expected to create approximately 7,000 permanent jobs.

Big tech’s nuclear moment

Google isn’t the only tech company that’s been cozying up to nuclear power. Microsoft made headlines by signing a deal to restart a unit at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. Amazon has been exploring nuclear options for its AWS data centers. Google itself previously announced a deal with Kairos Power for small modular reactors in the US.

What makes the Fortum agreement different is scale and geography. This is a full-sized, operating nuclear plant in Europe, not a startup reactor or a mothballed facility. And the 22-year term is unusually long for a corporate PPA.

The deal also arrives at a moment when European energy policy is in flux. Germany famously shut down its last reactors in 2023. Finland has gone the opposite direction, completing the long-delayed Olkiluoto 3 reactor and now securing the future of Loviisa through private-sector partnerships.

Fortum’s ability to attract a creditworthy counterparty like Google for a multi-decade commitment essentially de-risks the €1 billion investment, with around €700 million of that still pending final board approval.

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