A planned data centre in Kouvola in southeastern Finland has come under renewed scrutiny after revelations of Chinese ownership and a potential link to social media giant TikTok.
The project gained significant attention earlier this week when it emerged that TikTok is expected to become the primary user of the centre.
The following day, Yle and business daily Kauppalehti reported that Hyperco, previously described as a Finnish company, is no longer under Finnish ownership.
According to Yle's investigative unit, the largest shareholder in the company overseeing the Kouvola data centre is Chinese businessman Huang Wei, who holds nearly 40 percent of shares.
Huang is the CEO and co-founder of GDS Holdings, a major Chinese 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.
Huang did not respond to Yle's request for comment, and GDS Holdings has not issued a statement.
The second major shareholder is Dubai-based billionaire Hussain Sajwan, who has known business ties with US president Donald Trump.
A shift from Finnish beginnings
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 centre in Vantaa for 35 million euros.
That Vantaa facility is now owned by Sajwan.
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 Sajwan.
"Our goal is to continue growing, and in our line of business, that requires significant capital," Hyperco CEO Aleksi Taipale said in a statement at the time.
Behind the scenes, Chinese involvement in the project had already begun.
Chinese majority ownership
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 centre. 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 percent stake in the companies, with Sajwan retaining the remainder.
The Ministry of Defence granted Hyperco Fin Holdco 1 a permit in December 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. The ministry declined to comment, stating that data centres do not automatically constitute a national security concern warranting further intervention.
Ownership chain and past leaks
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 British Virgin Islands 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.
Concerns about security
Concerns about the data centre intensified after the EU fined TikTok 530 million euros in early May over data security breaches. The EU found that TikTok's Chinese staff had access to European user data, and some of this information had been transferred outside the EU. TikTok plans to appeal.
While Western tech firms like Google and Meta also collect vast amounts of user data, Chinese law offers fewer protections against state access. China's cybersecurity law mandates that companies support national intelligence services if requested.
GDS Holdings' own financial filings acknowledge the risks of operating under China's political and economic system.
"The economy of China differs from that of most developed countries in many respects, including the level of government involvement, development stage, growth rate, and control over currency and resource allocation," the company states.
Sajwan has declined to comment on the Kouvola project or his connections with Donald Trump.
Legal grounds to block unclear
The Finnish government may face legal difficulties if it attempts to block TikTok from leasing space at the Kouvola data centre, legal scholars have told Yle.
Earlier this week, Economic Affairs Minister Wille Rydman (Finns) said he hopes the company behind the project would reconsider whether it wants to have TikTok as a customer.
Although EU law does allow member states to restrict foreign investment on grounds of public security or order, the specific circumstances surrounding the TikTok project may not warrant intervention.
"In court, national security is a super-argument," said Toni Selkälä, a researcher of international law at the University of Turku, "but it's hard to say whether it would stand up to closer scrutiny."
Selkälä added that based on public information, the Finnish authorities appear to have limited justification to interfere. Intervention might be possible only if officials possess concrete intelligence indicating that TikTok's presence poses a threat to national security.
Such a move could lead to what Selkälä described as a "peculiar situation," where TikTok would be prevented from operating a data centre in Finland while Finnish users would continue to supply the platform's other European centres with personal data.
The controversy centres on TikTok's ties to China and concerns over user data being accessed by Chinese authorities. These fears have been echoed by security agencies across the West, including the Finnish Intelligence and Security Service (Supo).
EU implications
Earlier this month, the European Union fined TikTok 530 million euros for transferring European user data to China without consent.
Ironically, some experts point out that TikTok's efforts to establish data centres in Europe are a direct response to regulatory pressure from Brussels. Denying the company's operations could therefore appear counterproductive.
Public law professor Tomi Voutilainen from the University of Eastern Finland said that restricting operations on security grounds might be possible if the data centre were near strategically important infrastructure—but the former Koria garrison, shut down over 30 years ago, likely doesn't meet that threshold.
Meanwhile, Tuomas Mylly, professor of commercial law at the University of Turku, argued that any government attempt to block TikTok must be viewed through the lens of EU law, specifically the freedom to provide services and establish a business.
He noted that TikTok is already established within the EU, with a headquarters and operational data centre in Ireland. Blocking further expansion within the EU would therefore demand a high standard of justification.
