Denmark's data centres have quite a small number of people working!

Politicians often express great enthusiasm when tech giants announce plans to build data centres in Denmark.

“It’s an apple that has fallen into our lap, and to stick with the Apple theme, we’re on cloud nine,” Torsten Nielsen (K), who was mayor of Viborg Municipality at the time, said when Apple first announced its data centre back in 2015.

He expected 10,000 new jobs to be created in the municipality.

This prospect of hundreds—if not thousands—of new jobs is often cited as a huge benefit to society. Among other places, in West Jutland, where Microsoft is planning to build three large data centres.

“I am very pleased when large companies as Microsoft choose to make significant investments in Denmark and help create new jobs. I am confident that this new data center region in the municipalities of Esbjerg and Varde can help develop West Denmark and contribute to growth, new jobs and even greater progress,” Stephanie Lose (V), then minister for economic affairs, said in Microsoft’s press release.

However, a survey carried out by Ingeniøren shows that the reality is somewhat different.

Ingeniøren has obtained figures from the four US tech giants–Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Apple–which together employ around 450 full-time staff across all their data centres in Denmark.

And that benefit is far from commensurate with the cost to society of having data centres in Denmark, according to Brit Ross Winthereik, professor of technology and business at DTU:

“It’s quite a small number relative to the total workforce, which stands at around two million people. We’re not currently struggling with unemployment, so a few hundred jobs make no difference. I don’t think that number of new jobs is a compelling argument (for building data centres, ed.) when you consider the cost of operating data centres in Denmark,” she emphasises.