Invest Sweden has been working with Facebook throughout the investment process. Pretty much on a daily basis since the company started to search for a european site in March 2010. For several yearswe have seen the great potential for datacenter locations in Sweden and have a special project working with investments in datacenters. As a part of this effort Invest Sweden has met Facebook on location in Silicon Valley to convince them to look at Sweden as a possible location for future investments.
The first contacts with Facebook took place in June 2009. The next step was a larger presentation on location at Facebook in the US together with Swedish experts and regional representatives on October 19 2009. At that meeting Invest Sweden invited Facebook to Sweden and the concrete planning started in February.
During the investment process Facebook has turned to Invest Sweden that has had a coordinating role until a selection was made and a direct dialogue started with a primary choice, Luleå.
Invest Sweden have:
- delivered a number of possible datacenter sites in Sweden
- collected specific information from a number of selected regions
- helped local teams in Sweden to package and communicate their offers
- plan, organize and participate in a number of visits to Sweden for evaluation of specific sites
- plan, organize and participate a number of meetings with specialists and experts in various areas such as energy market, electricity pricing, fiber and connectivity, investment support etc
- plan, organize and participate meetings with suppliers, consultants and advisors
- deliver information on taxes, laws, labor market, pricing and costs, processes, warrants, customs issues etc
- supply concrete suggestions on experts, specialists, consultants, advisors and companies in a wide range of areas
- give advice on strategic and tactical communication with Swedish companies and organizations
During the entire process Invest Sweden have worked to maintain confidentiality about the project and all communication with selected towns, companies and individuals.