Google illegally cut down some 250,000 trees in northern Finland to build a data center, sparking national outrage.

Google illegally cut down some 250,000 trees in northern Finland to build a data center, sparking national outrage.

The company cleared 330 dunams of forest near the town of Mohos without first completing the required environmental impact assessments.

Conservationists estimate that an additional 150,000 trees were cut down at a second site in Otnamaki.

Finland's licensing authority ordered Google to stop work on both sites earlier this month.

The sites are part of a 13 billion euro artificial intelligence infrastructure project, the largest of its kind in Finland.