TikTok to Build Second Data Centre in Finland with Rp 19.7 Trillion Investment

Social media platform TikTok plans to allocate an investment of €1 billion (around $1.16 billion or equivalent to Rp 19.7 trillion) to build a second data centre in Finland within less than a year. According to Reuters, the company announced this plan on Wednesday (8/4/2026), as part of efforts to move the storage of European user data to the continent. This announcement comes after TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, successfully avoided a ban in the United States (US) in January over data protection concerns. TikTok stated that this latest investment will be used to build a data centre in Lahti, southern Finland, with an initial capacity of 50 megawatts (MW) and potential total capacity of up to 128 MW. The investment is part of the €12 billion “European data sovereignty” initiative, which claims to provide high-standard data protection for more than 200 million users in the region. Several tech giants such as Microsoft and Google are interested in investing due to lower energy costs, cold climate, low-carbon electricity, and stable, business-friendly regulations in the European Union area. However, TikTok’s plan has also sparked concerns. Finnish politicians highlighted TikTok’s first data centre project in the country after it was revealed in April last year. Although the Finnish Ministry of Defence approved the investment in 2024, several politicians said they were not informed beforehand. Former Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs at the time, Wille Rydman, even called for the project to be reviewed due to security reasons and lack of transparency. Currently, TikTok states that European user data is stored with additional protection in three data centres located in Norway, Ireland, and the United States. TikTok’s first data centre in Kouvola, Finland, is targeted to start operating by the end of 2026, while the second data centre in Lahti is planned to be completed in 2027. Mayor of Lahti, Niko Kyynarainen, welcomed the investment positively. He assessed that the project is significant for the local economy and stated that an agreement with the main tenant has been signed and the project is proceeding as planned.