Key Points
- Microsoft is investing $10 billion in AI infrastructure in a data center in Sines, Portugal.
- The project is a partnership with Start Campus, Nscale, and NVIDIA.
- The data center will be equipped with 12,600 of NVIDIA’s next-generation GPUs.
- Portugal’s location and green energy projects make it an attractive site for data centers.
Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it plans to invest $10 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure at a data center in the Portuguese port city of Sines. The multi-year investment marks one of the largest AI projects in Europe.
The tech giant will partner with developers Start Campus, AI infrastructure platform Nscale, and the chipmaker NVIDIA to deploy 12,600 of NVIDIA’s next-generation Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) in Sines, which is located 150 km south of Lisbon.
Start Campus, a joint venture between U.S. investment fund Davidson Kempner and Britain’s Pioneer Point Partners, had already announced in April a plan to invest 8.5 billion euros by 2030 to build a data center hub to meet the growing demand from major tech and AI companies. One of the six planned buildings is already operational.
“By strengthening the national AI infrastructure through collaboration with Nscale, NVIDIA, and Start Campus, we are helping to position Portugal as a benchmark for the responsible and scalable development of AI in Europe,” said Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith.
Portugal is an attractive location for such projects. The country has several large investment projects in Sines to produce green energy, which is crucial for powering energy-intensive data centers. Additionally, Portugal’s Atlantic coastline makes it a key hub for subsea cables that connect Europe, Africa, and the Americas, forming the backbone of the internet.
Investments in data centers, which provide the computing power needed for AI, have skyrocketed since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022. Companies in all sectors are increasingly moving their operations to the cloud and integrating AI into their businesses.
