Advertisement

Facebook bounce brings more firms to Luleå

Author thumbnail
Facebook bounce brings more firms to Luleå

A year after Facebook announced it would open a data centre in Luleå, three more multinational companies are set to follow suit, opening branches in the northern Swedish town.

Advertisement

The new entrants include two hardware companies and one software firm, and an extensive recruitment process is already underway.

Fredrik Kalloniemi, operations manager at Aurorum Science Park in Luleå, explained that the hiring team is hoping to hire as many local Luleå residents as possible.

“It’s a lot easier then having to relocate people,” he told The Local.

“These are people that know the region and the business, which makes recruitment a lot quicker. I think any company likes that.”

Though Facebook has been a major factor in putting Luleå on the map as an emerging tech hub, Kalloniemi maintains the new data centre is not the only reason companies are interested in establishing operations near the Arctic Circle.

“In recent years, there has been a 20 billion kronor ($3 billion) investment in the industry in Sweden,” he said.

A large percentage of that has been invested in IT infrastructure, which has made Sweden an attractive location.

“Facebook served as a trigger, but there are more data centres in this region and these multinational companies see a possibility to expand, to start partnerships with local companies," Kalloniemi added.

The Aurorum Science Park is also talking to a whole list of other companies, suggesting that the three new firms, the names of which have yet to be made public, are only the beginning.

The plan is that the data centre will eventually consist of three buildings with enough space to include additional companies.

The first building is currently under construction and is already making an impression.

“The data centre is going to be huge, I mean it’ll be crazy big,” Kalloniemi told The Local.

Sanne Schim van der Loeff

Follow The Local on Twitter

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also