Source: Reuters
Nebius, a relatively young entrant backed by Russian founders but now operating independently from its home market, is betting that European AI demand will justify massive capital commitments outside the traditional hyperscaler corridors of Ireland and the Netherlands. The 310MW facility in Lappeenranta positions the firm to capture latency-sensitive workloads and tap cheaper Nordic power grids—a strategy that’s attracting multiple competitors (CoreWeave, Lambda Labs) to similar peripheral locations, fragmenting what was once a concentrated data center geography. This capital intensity reveals a real tension: the winners in AI infrastructure may be determined not by technology but by who can secure land, power, and regulatory approval fastest in markets where those assets are still available at scale.