A Finnish AI cloud company has agreed to put down $5 million for the right to negotiate a lease covering the entire first phase of a Hokkaido AI data center still under construction.
AI Tech Tomakomai Co. (ATT), a subsidiary of Kankyo Friendly Holdings (TSE Growth: 3777), signed a memorandum of understanding on July 17 with Verda Cloud Oy, a Helsinki-based AI cloud provider, granting Verda exclusive negotiation rights over the full 10MW of Phase 1 at the Tomakomai AI Data Center in Hokkaido.
| Term | Detail |
|---|---|
| Counterparty | Verda Cloud Oy (Helsinki, Finland) |
| Capacity covered | 10MW, all of Phase 1 |
| Reservation deposit | $5 million |
| Deposit refund | Full $5mn returned if talks fail without Verda at fault; ATT keeps $1mn and returns $4mn if Verda is at fault |
| Final contract target | 1 to 1.5 months from MOU effective date, extendable 30 days |
| Estimated annual fee | ¥2.4bn to ¥2.5bn (reference estimate, excludes electricity) |
| Electricity charge | ¥22 per kWh, excluding tax, billed separately |
Verda's deposit is not simply a signing fee. If the two sides reach a final lease on the terms outlined in the MOU, the deposit converts into six months' worth of collocation service fees. If talks collapse through no fault of Verda's, ATT returns the full $5 million; if the breakdown is Verda's doing, ATT keeps $1 million and returns the remaining $4 million.
The clock is short. ATT and Verda are targeting a final contract within one to one-and-a-half months of the MOU taking effect, extendable by 30 days if both sides give written notice that talks are still active in good faith. Delivery of the facility would follow within four months of any signed lease.
Kankyo Friendly estimates that, if the final contract mirrors the MOU's terms, annual collocation fees would run ¥2.4bn to ¥2.5bn, on top of a separate electricity charge of ¥22 per kilowatt-hour. The company stresses this figure is a reference calculation, not yet built into its earnings forecast, and that usage fees, contract length and other core terms remain unset.
Verda, founded in 2018 and led by chief executive Ruben Bryon and chief operating officer Jorge Santos, says it holds priority access to NVIDIA's newest GPUs, has run AI cloud services at above 99.95% uptime, and operates data centers on 100% renewable power as it expands from Europe into the Asia-Pacific region.
The MOU itself carries no binding force beyond a handful of clauses, and Phase 2, a planned 50MW expansion targeted for December 2027, sits outside this agreement entirely.