Summary
- CSC is converting a roughly 200-metre former paper machine hall into the LUMI AI Factory data centre.
- Around 3.5km of welded liquid-cooling pipework will support the LUMI-AI supercomputer and LUMI-IQ quantum computer.
- A six-month building-services commissioning phase begins in early 2027, ahead of planned operations at the end of 2027.
CSC – IT Center for Science has reached the topping-out stage of its LUMI AI Factory data centre in Kajaani, Finland, as the conversion of a former paper mill moves towards a building-services intensive commissioning programme.
The project at the Renforsin Ranta industrial area is transforming an approximately 200-metre-long former paper machine hall into infrastructure for the next-generation LUMI-AI supercomputer and the experimental LUMI-IQ quantum computer.
Construction contractor SRV began work in January 2026. CSC said around 115 people are currently employed on the construction programme, with the workforce expected to peak at roughly 150 as mechanical, electrical, and other technical installations progress.
The data centre is scheduled to enter operation at the end of 2027, but much of the work between the structural milestone and that date will sit inside the plant and commissioning programme rather than the building shell.
Liquid cooling drives the fit-out
CSC said approximately 3.5 kilometres of welded liquid-cooling pipework will be installed at the site. Cooling systems, electrical infrastructure, and the integration of multiple technical systems account for a substantial part of the project, with electrical installations described as particularly significant.
A six-month commissioning and testing phase for the building systems is scheduled to begin in early 2027. That timetable illustrates the gap between completing the construction envelope of an advanced computing facility and having a site ready to accept production hardware.
High-performance systems concentrate large electrical and thermal loads into relatively small technical areas, placing more emphasis on distribution, controls, hydraulic integrity, environmental stability, and staged testing. The presence of both a conventional supercomputer and an experimental quantum system adds another layer to the requirement for tightly controlled operating conditions.
LUMI-AI will be delivered under the European high-performance computing programme and is intended to succeed the existing LUMI supercomputer in Kajaani. The LUMI-IQ machine will provide a complementary experimental quantum computing capability.
The new data centre is being constructed next to the existing LUMI facility rather than on an entirely new campus. CSC has reused significant parts of the former industrial building, including its basic structure, while adding new steel support for the data centre’s building-services systems.
Around 326 tonnes of additional structural steel are being incorporated into the project. CSC also said approximately 450 cubic metres of cross-laminated timber will be used in the walls, with the material manufactured in nearby Kuhmo from locally sourced timber.
Industrial reuse meets sovereign compute
The Kajaani project combines two trends now visible across European computing infrastructure: the redevelopment of former industrial sites and public investment in sovereign high-performance computing.
Reusing an existing paper machine hall avoids part of the conventional greenfield building process, but it does not remove the difficult engineering. Existing structures have to be adapted to carry data centre mechanical and electrical systems, while the power, cooling, controls, security, and commissioning programme must still meet the tolerances expected of high-value computing equipment.
Finland also brings a favourable climate and relatively low-carbon electricity system, factors that have helped northern European markets attract both research computing and commercial data centre investment. For public supercomputing projects, however, the infrastructure decision is also about where strategic compute capacity is owned, operated, and made available to researchers and industry.
LUMI AI Factory is one of the European Union’s network of AI Factories, designed to combine supercomputing infrastructure with services intended to broaden access to AI development capacity. That makes the Kajaani project more than an equipment refresh: the physical data centre is the delivery layer for a wider European computing programme.
The topping-out milestone confirms that the structural conversion is advancing, but the critical path now moves deeper into the facility. Several kilometres of cooling pipework, substantial electrical installations, and six months of commissioning remain before the building can support the systems it has been designed around.
