Finnish Police Probe Google Muhos Data Centre

Police in Oulu have opened a criminal investigation into preparatory works at the Muhos data-centre site of Tuike Finland, a Google subsidiary, in northern Finland. In a statement on 29 October, Oulu police said the investigation began this week at the request of the national environmental regulator, and is being run under the offence heading of environmental damage.

This is a pre-trial investigation. Nobody has been charged, and the police have not named any suspect. The police said that, on preliminary information, there had been ambiguities and shortcomings in the ditching and water management at the construction site, and that the inquiry would look at those issues among others.

What the police are investigating

Oulu police said five requests for an investigation into the Muhos project had been made, and all five will be handled in the same inquiry. The heading of environmental damage also covers any lesser related offences, and police said other possible headings could become clearer as the investigation goes on. Because of the scale of the case, they expect it to take a long time, with the aim of finishing during 2027.

According to Reuters, the police plan an update in December. Detective Superintendent Kari Pakanen told the agency: “We are investigating whether the company’s operations have breached the water act and resulted in environmental damage.” He said a guilty finding could lead to a corporate fine, and declined to say whether any individuals could become a target.

A Google spokesperson told Reuters the company would cooperate with the investigation. “We’ve partnered closely with the government and communities in Finland on infrastructure for over a decade, and are actively responding to enquiries from LVV and other authorities,” the spokesperson said.

How the regulator got here

The investigation follows weeks of action by Finland’s Licensing and Supervisory Agency (Lupa- ja valvontavirasto, LVV). On 6 October, as TSN reported at the time, LVV told Tuike Finland to suspend groundwork at Muhos and at a second site, Kajaani-Otanmäki, because the environmental impact assessments for both projects were still unfinished. LVV’s 6 October instruction describes the Muhos project area as about 571 hectares, planned for nine data-centre buildings with more than 300 MW of backup power. It records Tuike’s own figure of about 330 hectares for the area felled and prepared, and Tuike’s position that the works were allowed as site preparation under Finland’s Construction Act.

In a release on 22 October, LVV said Tuike had told it on 14 October that it had complied and stopped work at both sites. LVV also said it had made a request for a police investigation, without giving details.

The same release explains why water is at the centre of the case. Tuike filed a ditching notice for Muhos on 18 September. It covers about nine kilometres of new ditches, most of which had already been dug, although the notice should have been made at least 60 days before work began. LVV says the site lies on black shale, where digging and drainage can oxidise sulphide-bearing soils and raise acidity and metal levels in water. It says Tuike’s own monitoring has already shown changes that point to acidification.

LVV concluded that the ditching needs a permit under the Water Act. “In our assessment, the information available does not show with sufficient certainty that the project’s effects on waters can be prevented and properly managed using the methods set out in the notice,” said Janne Kärkkäinen, head of LVV’s water environment unit (TSN translation). Tuike must send a detailed water-management plan by 5 November. If it does not act, LVV says it will consider enforcement backed by a conditional fine.

The size of Google’s Finnish plan differs between reports. Reuters puts it at $15 billion; the Guardian and Yle give €13 billion. The Guardian reports that Google’s Finland country manager, Antti Järvinen, has apologised for the clearings, saying the company had acted on “the best understanding we had of the legislation at the time”.

Order of permits is now the real risk for Finland’s data-centre boom

This is TSN’s analysis. The police case will take more than a year, and it may end without any charge. Its practical weight lies elsewhere. It moves the Muhos dispute from an administrative argument about paperwork into a criminal process, and it turns the order of permits into the main risk for any developer in Finland.

The LVV documents show two readings of the same rules. Tuike treated felling and drainage as site preparation that could start before the environmental assessment. The regulator treats the ditching as work that needed advance notice and a Water Act permit, on ground where drainage can acidify rivers. A criminal inquiry does not settle which reading is right, but it raises the cost of guessing wrong.

That matters well beyond one site. Finland has sold itself on land, clean power and quick approvals. Elsewhere, governments are starting to slow approvals instead, as Oregon did when its governor asked regulators to pause data-centre permits. Water, too, is becoming the question that follows Google’s projects, as it did with its Visakhapatnam AI hub in India. For developers, the lesson from Muhos is plain: finish the assessment before the excavators arrive.

The next fixed date is 5 November, when Tuike’s water-management plan is due at LVV. Police have said they aim to share more in December.