YIT and atNorth Agree on €300 Million Data Center Construction in Kouvola
Finnish construction group YIT has agreed with data center operator atNorth on the construction of a new data center in Kouvola, Finland, in a deal valued at approximately €300 million for YIT. The contract, announced July 21, 2026, will be booked into YIT's Q3 2026 order book and covers a comprehensive design-build scope that includes design, civil and structural work, mechanical and electrical systems, and commissioning.
Project Scope and Location
The new facility will be built in Myllykoski, within the City of Kouvola, approximately 139 kilometers northeast of Helsinki. It forms part of atNorth's FIN04 mega-site campus, situated on a 21-hectare plot at postal code 46800 Myllykoski. The FIN04 campus is planned to reach a total capacity of 430 megawatts when fully built out, positioning Kouvola among the larger single-site data center clusters in Europe.
Construction begins immediately following the agreement. Completion of this phase of the campus is expected by the end of 2027. The FIN04 site represents atNorth's fourth data center location in Finland, reflecting a deliberate clustering strategy in the country. Earlier phases of the campus saw ground-breaking on an initial building in 2024, with operations from those earlier structures scheduled across 2026 and 2027, indicating a phased, multi-building build-out.
Design-Build Contract Structure
YIT is delivering the project under a turnkey design-build contract, retaining responsibility across the full project lifecycle — from design through civil, structural, and architectural work, to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, and final commissioning. The comprehensive scope keeps value capture largely in-house for YIT, positioning the firm as a prime contractor for complex technical real estate rather than a standard general contractor.
The €300 million contract value will be recorded in YIT's order book in the third quarter of 2026. For YIT, a construction and development group with longstanding activity in residential, commercial, and infrastructure segments, the agreement represents a significant single-contract addition that extends multi-year revenue visibility through the 2027 completion horizon.
Sustainability and Energy Profile
The new data center is designed to run on renewable energy and is engineered to reuse waste heat, including through connection to the local district heating network. Heat reuse has become a key policy consideration for Finnish municipalities, which have been actively encouraging data center developments that can offset district heating fuel costs and contribute to local grid decarbonization.
atNorth has applied for additional building permits for three more data center buildings in the Kouvola area, with the municipal council expected to deliberate on the request, indicating continued campus expansion plans and active engagement with local governance.
Market Context: Nordic Data Center Demand
The Kouvola project reflects broader dynamics reshaping European data center siting. In established markets such as Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris, supply has become increasingly constrained by grid connections and power availability, pushing hyperscale and artificial intelligence operators toward Nordic and secondary markets where large contiguous sites and multi-hundred-megawatt power feeds remain feasible.
Finland offers relatively low-cost renewable power, a cool climate suited to efficient cooling, and strong transmission infrastructure, making it increasingly competitive against Sweden, Denmark, and Norway for AI and cloud data center siting. The FIN04 campus's 21-hectare footprint with immediate power availability aligns directly with those demand characteristics.
For YIT, the contract also reflects a broader trend among Nordic construction firms of diversifying from residential development into transport, industrial, energy, and digital infrastructure segments to offset margin pressure and cyclical risk in housing markets.
Sources
YIT Group Investor News — YIT and atNorth agree on construction of a data center in Kouvola