# Finland Orders Google to Halt Work on Two AI Data Centers Over Deforestation > Source: > Published: 2026-10-24 11:07:13+00:00 *Google bulldozed hundreds of hectares of Finnish forest before anyone checked whether it was legal. Now a regulator has shut the sites down until it finds out.* Tommi Muilu doesn't mince words. The environment department head at Finland's Licensing and Supervisory Authority, known as LVV, says his agency found trees removed, topsoil stripped, site roads built and drainage ditches altered at two Google data center sites, all before the company had completed the environmental impact assessment Finnish law requires for a project this size. On October 7, LVV ordered Google's local subsidiary, Tuike Finland, to stop. The deadline was October 23, and by LVV's account, Tuike had already cleared roughly 330 hectares near Muhos and just under 200 hectares at the Kajaani-Otanmäki site, close to 530 hectares combined, or about 250,000 trees by outside estimates reported by Tom's Hardware. This isn't a side project. The Muhos, Kajaani, Vaala and Hamina sites are pieces of what Google calls its single largest investment in Europe, a buildout the company has pegged at roughly €13 billion, or about $15 billion, aimed at AI infrastructure. Reuters and CNBC both reported the halt order covers tree felling, blasting, crushing, soil removal and the construction of storage areas and site roads. Planning work, measurements and soil surveys can continue. Everything that physically reshapes the land cannot, until the assessments are done. Google isn't fighting the finding. A company spokesperson, Sondre Ronander, told AFP the company would "study the LVV's findings and follow their guidance," and separately told CNBC that Google had "fallen short of our own high standards in this instance." That's about as close to an admission of guilt as a hyperscaler gets in public. Frankly, it's rare to see one say it plainly instead of hiding behind a statement about "ongoing engagement with local stakeholders." Local opposition to AI data centers has become background noise in 2026: water use in Arizona, power draw in Virginia, grid strain in Ireland. Regulators usually respond after the fact, if at all, with fines that amount to a rounding error against a multibillion-dollar buildout. This is not that. LVV didn't fine Google. It stopped an active construction site mid-build, on a legal technicality that happens to be entirely substantive: you clear protected land after the assessment, not before. According to the chair of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, some of the logged area included nature sites that were supposed to be preserved. [The EU just ordered Google to hand Android and Search data to its AI rivals](https://startupfortune.com/the-eu-just-ordered-google-to-hand-android-and-search-data-to-its-ai-rivals/) The European Commission ordered Google to open 11 Android features to rival AI assistants and share anonymized search data with competitors like OpenAI starting in 2027. Google's Kent Walker calls it a threat to user privacy and security. - [eu orders google share android data](https://startupfortune.com/the-eu-just-ordered-google-to-hand-android-and-search-data-to-its-ai-rivals/) - [google search data competitors 2027](https://startupfortune.com/the-eu-just-ordered-google-to-hand-android-and-search-data-to-its-ai-rivals/) Tuike Finland was told to explain itself and lay out next steps by October 14, and LVV has warned that formal enforcement proceedings are on the table if the company doesn't comply. Google's response so far is a pledge to replant trees across 130 hectares at Muhos as part of what it describes as advancing its landscaping and biodiversity plans. Do the math: 130 hectares of replanting against roughly 530 hectares cleared. That's not restoration. That's damage control dressed up as a biodiversity plan, and a regulator that already caught the company logging ahead of its own paperwork is unlikely to take the number at face value. Finland has spent the last few years marketing itself as what some have taken to calling the "Texas of Europe" for data centers: cold climate, cheap renewable power, political stability. Google's €13 billion commitment was supposed to be the proof of concept. Instead, the company now has to explain to Finnish regulators why its own environmental process ran behind its bulldozers, in the one European country that bet its data center strategy on being easy to build in. Here's the part that should worry every founder watching the AI infrastructure race from the outside: this is what happens when buildout speed outruns permitting discipline at a company with Google's legal resources and reputational incentive to get this right. If Alphabet can get caught clearing 530 hectares before the paperwork clears, smaller infrastructure players chasing the same AI capacity crunch, with thinner compliance budgets, aren't likely to do better. LVV says the environmental impact assessment reports for both sites are expected sometime in 2026. Until then, the bulldozers in Muhos and Kajaani stay parked. **Also read:** [GitHub pull requests point to Alibaba's next open Qwen model nearing release](https://startupfortune.com/github-pull-requests-point-to-alibabas-next-open-qwen-model-nearing-release/) • [An AI model found a PHP bug so bad it took government sites offline](https://startupfortune.com/an-ai-model-found-a-php-bug-so-bad-it-took-government-sites-offline/) • [Anthropic admits its Mythos 5 agent tried to trick coders into malicious code](https://startupfortune.com/anthropic-admits-its-mythos-5-agent-tried-to-trick-coders-into-malicious-code/) *This article is posted in [AI News](https://startupfortune.com/category/ai/), check it out for more related stories.* ## Join the discussion [Open in the community →](https://startupfortune.com/community/) Almost there. Sign in and your reply posts straight away.