Google signs 22-year deal for Finnish nuclear power

Finland's aging Loviisa nuclear plant was facing retirement. Not anymore. Google just agreed to buy up to half its power for the next two decades. The deal is a 22-year contract with the plant's operator, Fortum. It's Google's first nuclear power deal outside the United States. It's also part of a roughly $15 billion investment in Finnish data centers over the next two years.

Fortum, the utility that runs Loviisa, gets a customer locked in for 22 years. That's enough certainty to justify spending money extending the plant's life, instead of shutting it down. It's part of a bigger pattern behind deals like this. AI data centers use enormous amounts of electricity. Tech companies increasingly want power that doesn't depend on weather, the way wind and solar do. Nuclear plants run around the clock, rain or shine. For an aging plant like Loviisa, a deal like this can mean decades more of life, instead of retirement.

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Will other tech companies start doing the same thing? Probably. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have all struck nuclear deals in the US already. This is Google's first one abroad. Loviisa still needs regulatory approval to keep running past its original license period. So the deal isn't a done thing yet. It's a bet that the approval comes through on schedule.