Google to splash $670M on new Finland data center

Google is spending about $670 million to build a new data center in Finland to meet the continuing demand for its cloud services, while also providing faster access to data.

Google is building the new data center in its existing data center complex in Hamina, which is on the south coast of Finland.

In 2009, Google purchased the Summa Mill from the Finnish paper company Stora Enso in order to convert it into a data center. With the new data center, Google's total investment in Hamina is 1.4 billion euros ($1.56 billion), according to a story by Bloomberg.

“The demand for Google services is growing daily, and we are building our data center infrastructure to match this demand," said Google’s Finland country head Antti Jarvinen, according to a story by Reuters.

Google's Hamina facility is one of the most advanced and efficient data centers in the Google's fleet. It uses seawater from the Bay of Finland as part of it its advanced cooling system.

Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services are continuing to build out their data centers across the globe to keep up with the demand for cloud-based services such as software as a service for enterprises. While cloud revenue was up for the large U.S. hyperscale cloud providers, capex took a slight hit year over year in the first quarter, according to a recent report by 650 Group.

Google has 58 data centers worldwide, and it has invested more than 4.3 billion in five European data centers since 2007. In the fourth quarter, Google announced in it was building a new data center in Denmark.

According to its most recent first quarter earnings report, Google's accrued capital expenditures came to $4.5 billion, which included spending on data centers, servers and office facilities.

RELATED: Google plans to invest $13B in the U.S. in 2019

In its first quarter earnings call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company would invest more than $13 billion throughout the year in data centers and offices across the U.S. with major expansions in 14 states.

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian previously said his company would significantly expand its sales force, and that the business would expand beyond its hyperscale internet clients to go after large customers in six different verticals.

“You’ll see us competing much more aggressively as we go forward,” Kurian said.