Microsoft has unveiled plans to invest $10 billion in building advanced artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure at a data center located in the coastal city of Sines, Portugal, over the coming years, as reported by Reuters. The move represents one of Europe’s largest AI-focused investment projects to date.
The initiative brings together Microsoft, Start Campus, Nscale, and NVIDIA in a strategic collaboration aimed at deploying 12,600 cutting-edge NVIDIA GPUs within the facility, situated about 150 kilometers south of Lisbon.
Start Campus, a joint venture between U.S. investment fund Davidson Kempner and U.K.-based Pioneer Point Partners, had earlier announced plans to invest €8.5 billion (approximately $9.9 billion) by 2030 to establish a large-scale data center hub in Sines to support the growing demand from global tech and AI enterprises.
One of the planned six buildings is already in operation.
“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,” Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said.
Portugal is advancing major investment projects in Sines to generate green energy that will supply power to its rapidly expanding network of energy-intensive data centers. The country’s Atlantic coastline gives it a strategic advantage as a key landing point for subsea cables linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas, forming a vital part of the global internet backbone.
Since OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in 2022, investment in data centers, which provide the computing capacity needed for artificial intelligence, has grown sharply, as companies across industries migrate to the cloud and integrate AI technologies into their operations.
