Companies | Mäntsälä, with a population of 20,000, received “Europe’s most powerful” supercomputer in commercial use

of the EU The data center from Mäntsälä, which was freed from Russian sanctions in the spring, is getting a new life as a concentration of artificial intelligence business.

The information appears from the Russian technology company Yandex NV (YNV) sent on Tuesday from the bulletin.

At the beginning of the week, the parent company Yandex NV, located in the Netherlands, has told about the group’s new plans. YNV said he had finished the sale of its Russian operations, and at the same time the group’s name will be changed to Nebius Group. The name change requires official approval from the general meeting to be held in August.

Based on the press releases, the data center located in Mäntsälä in Uusimaa has been moved to the core of future plans. The company, which goes by the name Nebius, seeks growth by offering, among other things, artificial intelligence infrastructure to its customers, and according to the company, Europe’s most powerful supercomputer in commercial use has been built in a municipality of more than 20,000 inhabitants.

YNV says in its press release that it is also expanding the data center. According to the company, it should be ready within 12 months.

According to the response sent by the company’s communications department to STT by email, the price of the Mäntsälän expansion investment will not be disclosed.

“We can tell you that the area was originally planned as four parts, two of which have been built so far. Now we’re finalizing the plans and growing it to a full quad to get more GPUs for our AI-based cloud,” the email says.

Mäntsälän the status of the data center seems to have changed in a few months. From the beginning, the center was built to meet the needs of the Yandex Group, which had extensive operations in Russia, even though the data center’s Finnish company, Global DC, has no longer referred to Yandex.

Global DC’s shares were still frozen in February due to EU sanctions. The bailout agency froze the shares after the EU imposed the founding member and former CEO of Yandex Arkady Volozhin to its sanctions list in 2022 due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Even during the sanctions, the data center produced district heating for the residents of Uusimaa and a profit of several million euros for its owners, even though vout kept the property. The enforcement agency also froze district heating payments that the energy company Nivos Vesi ja Lämpö paid to the company. According to last year’s financial statements, Global DC’s operating profit was approximately EUR 5.5 million.

of the Council of the EU According to the sanctions decision made at the time, Yandex, known as the “Russian Google”, supported the propaganda of the Russian government with its search results. The shares of the Yandex Group, which had its headquarters in the Netherlands, were also suspended from trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange after the outbreak of the war.

However, Volož, who made a fortune with Yandex, is one of the few people that the EU Council has removed from its sanctions list. Volož, who currently lives in Israel, has publicly condemned Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Since then, the Yandex Group also announced that it was selling its Russian business, which included the Yandex search engine. Yandex’s operations in Russia covered the majority of the group’s turnover.

Arkady Volozh Picture: Maksim Shemetov/Reuters

Enforcement agency released all the assets of the Global DC company it froze after the EU removed Volozh from the sanctions list. YNV’s or Nebius Group’s communications said on Tuesday evening that the company has discussed the expansion of district heating sales with the local energy company.

Chairman of the board of YNV John Boynton told in the bulletin at the beginning of the week, that the company’s exit from the Russian market is completely complete.

Yandex parent company announced earlier that a group consisting of several Russian investors signed up as buyers of its Russian businesses. The Russian operations are now owned by a foundation owned by, for example, the oil company Lukoil and by Russian businessmen.

The price for the deal was around 4.75 billion euros, which according to YNV was paid in cash and with YNV’s own shares. YNV or Nebius Group says that it is trying to get its shares back on the Nasdaq exchange.

Arkadi Volož returns to the management of Nebius Group, and the new group announces that it will focus on business related to artificial intelligence.

The group has according to the company about 1,300 employees in different countries in Europe, North America and the Middle East. According to the financial statements, the Global DC company in Finland had more than 20 employees last year.