What started out as a Finnish data center project developed by Finnish company Hyperco in Kouvola in southeastern Finland ends up being ~40%-owned by 
businessman Huang Wei (黄伟 aka William Huang) with TikTok as the tenant. That is, data of presumably European TikTok users will be stored on -owned infrastructure.
Hyperco was previously described as a Finnish company but it is no longer under Finnish ownership — the largest shareholder in the company overseeing the Kouvola data center is now Huang Wei, who holds nearly 40% of shares.
Huang is the CEO and co-founder of GDS Holdings (万国数据), a major data infrastructure firm listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and registered in the Cayman Islands. The majority of GDS's operations are based in China. The ADRs of GDS are trading on NASDAQ.
The second major shareholder is Dubai-based billionaire Hussain Sajwani.
Hyperco was founded in 2020 by Finnish businessmen Ville Vartiainen, Timo Pohjanpalo and Aleksi Taipale, who have backgrounds in real estate. Initially positioned as a property development company, Hyperco received funding from Danish investment firm NREP and Finnish pension insurer Varma. With their backing, Hyperco purchased a data center in Vantaa for 35 million euros.
That Vantaa facility is now owned by Sajwani.
At the time the Kouvola project launched, Hyperco was still in Finnish hands. However, in March 2025, the company announced it had been sold to Sajwani.
Chinese involvement in the project had already begun behind the scenes.
Hyperco established two new holding companies in mid-2024: Hyperco Fin Holdco 1 and Hyperco Fin Top Holdco 1. These entities are chaired by the CEO of Digitalland Holdings — now known as Day One — which handles GDS's international expansion outside China and is headquartered in Singapore.
The first company — Hyperco Fin Holdco 1 — owns the Kouvola site and was created to deliver the data center. The second — Hyperco Fin Top Holdco 1 — serves as a holding company. By the end of 2024, Chinese investors had acquired a majority 73.39% stake in the companies, with Sajwani retaining the remainder.
Ministry of Defence granted Hyperco Fin Holdco 1 a permit in Dec 2024 to acquire nearly 16 hectares of land in Kouvola, as required for non-EU/EEA buyers.
It is unclear whether the permit was requested due to Chinese or Emirati ownership — or both. Ministry of Defence claims that data centers do not automatically constitute a national security concern warranting further intervention.
Only Huang Wei's name appears in Finland's official ownership registry due to his significant stake. His ownership chain runs through companies registered in Spain and Singapore.
In the Pandora Papers data leak, three companies registered in the BVI appear under the name Huang Wei, with identical birthdates. However, the leak did not include a passport copy, so it remains unclear whether it is the same individual.
All three companies were established in 2006.
Despite the international footprint, Finland seems to hold special interest for GDS. The company's 2024 share subscription agreement explicitly allows expansion only into Finland, Spain and Thailand — outside of its core Chinese market. Activity is now underway in all three countries.
yle.fi/a/74-20160971