3E Network said on 23 September that its wholly owned Finnish subsidiary, Aurora Core Technology Oy, had begun procurement and construction preparation for an AI data centre project, supported by proceeds from a $1.0 million private placement. The project had previously been in feasibility planning, the company said in its project announcement.
Key points
- Aurora Core has requested bids for liquid-cooling equipment, modular power supplies and busways, 3E Network said.
- The company said proceeds from a $1.0 million private placement subscribed by a CEO-affiliated entity are paying for front-end engineering.
- Aurora Core is negotiating multi-megawatt grid connections with a regional utility provider, according to 3E Network.
- The subsidiary has begun discussions with municipal heating providers about using waste heat, the company said.
Aurora Core seeks Vera Rubin equipment
3E Network said Aurora Core has taken responsibility for local procurement, engineering and contract negotiations. The subsidiary has issued formal requests for proposals covering liquid-to-liquid cooling distribution units, modular uninterruptible power supply systems and intelligent busways.
The company said the equipment is intended to support dense computing installations, including Nvidia’s Vera Rubin architecture. The requests follow preliminary assessments of suppliers and the setting of liquid-cooling parameters, according to 3E Network.
3E Network had unveiled a blueprint for its Mikkeli, Finland, project designed around Vera Rubin on 11 September, MarketScreener reported. Its 23 September announcement assigns the work of seeking suppliers to Aurora Core, which the company describes as its wholly owned Nordic subsidiary.
3E Network said it is coordinating with Nordic architects, structural engineers and mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractors. Their work includes setting structural requirements for racks filled with computing equipment and planning construction around Finland’s winter conditions.
$1.0 million placement funds Finnish engineering
The net proceeds of the $1.0 million private placement are funding front-end engineering through Aurora Core, 3E Network said. An entity affiliated with chief executive Dr. Tingjun Yang subscribed to the placement, according to the company.
3E Network said some of that funding is allocated to geotechnical surveys of the site. The surveys are intended to check whether the ground can support racks equipped for dense computing installations.
The company said the proceeds also support climate modelling based on a decade of local weather data. That work compares conditions at the site with the requirements of the proposed liquid-cooling system to establish parameters for cooling that can make use of outside temperatures.
According to 3E Network, the placement is also paying for technical material for an Environmental Impact Assessment, including work on noise and water recycling. Aurora Core is working with regional regulators and environmental consultants on those filings, the company said.
Mikkeli grid and district heating talks
Aurora Core is negotiating interconnection and capacity allocation with a regional utility provider, 3E Network said. The discussions concern multi-megawatt grid connections, the engineering schedule for two independently maintainable power feeds and the efficiency of distributing power at the site.
3E Network said Aurora Core has retained electrical engineering specialists for power-flow and short-circuit studies in coordination with the utility. Those studies form part of the subsidiary’s preparation for the proposed power connections.
The company said its environmental work covers water recycling in the liquid-cooling system, noise from cooling towers and the facility’s lifecycle carbon footprint. It is developing plans to align the site with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, the EUAI Act and EN 50600 data centre standards, according to 3E Network.
3E Network said Aurora Core has begun commercial discussions with municipal heating providers about sending heat recovered from the data centre’s liquid-cooling loops into the local district heating grid. The discussions include potential arrangements for sharing revenue from that heat, according to the company.
