Advertisement
What really powers the cloud? Behind every Google search, A...
A lot of what defines a home isn’t visible at handover. I...
Private equity has played a significant role in shaping Indi...
Luxury real estate is one of the most talked-about segments ...
Airports play a much bigger role than just enabling travel -...
Poste Italiane plans to develop a 70 MW data centre in Italy's Lombardy region as part of its strategy to establish a large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) computing hub. The project comes alongside the state-backed financial group's proposed EUR 13 billion acquisition of Telecom Italia (TIM) and follows its collaboration with the telecom operator on existing data centre developments. According to the company, the project has already secured an identified site, power supplier and financing support from major Italian banks. The announcement reflects growing investment by European companies in AI infrastructure, although the region continues to lag the United States in data centre capacity and AI-related investment.
Poste Italiane has announced plans to develop a 70 MW data centre in Italy's Lombardy region as part of a broader strategy to establish a large-scale hub capable of supporting artificial intelligence (AI) models. The announcement was made by Chief Executive Matteo Del Fante during a post-results call with analysts in the past week.
The proposed facility forms part of Poste Italiane's expanding digital infrastructure strategy and comes as the state-backed financial services group pursues its EUR 13 billion bid to acquire Telecom Italia (TIM). The company already holds a 20% stake in TIM and has been collaborating with the telecom operator on data centre projects.
Del Fante said Poste Italiane has supported TIM in developing data centre infrastructure, including a 20 MW facility. He added that preparations for the larger 70 MW project are already underway, with the company having identified the site, secured a power supplier and arranged financing with support from Italy's leading banks.
The investment reflects a broader trend among European telecommunications and technology companies, which are increasing expenditure on AI infrastructure to support applications across strategic sectors such as defence, healthcare and advanced digital services. Demand for high-capacity data centres has accelerated as organisations deploy increasingly complex AI models requiring significant computing power and energy resources.
Despite this momentum, Europe continues to trail the United States in AI investment and digital infrastructure. Industry participants have highlighted the slower pace of capacity expansion across the continent compared with North America, where technology companies have invested heavily in hyperscale data centres to support AI development.
Italy also faces additional challenges in expanding its digital infrastructure because of relatively high energy costs. Compared with neighbouring countries such as France and Spain, electricity prices in Italy remain higher, increasing the operating costs of large-scale data centre facilities.
TIM is currently among Italy's three largest data centre operators, with an installed capacity of approximately 125 MW. However, the country's overall installed data centre capacity remains comparatively limited and is estimated to be only around 15% of Germany's total capacity.
The planned 70 MW development is expected to strengthen Italy's digital infrastructure and expand computing capacity available for AI workloads. It also represents a continuation of Poste Italiane's collaboration with TIM as both companies seek to increase investment in data centres to meet growing demand for digital services and artificial intelligence applications across the European market.
Source - Reuters
Advertisement
Facebook
Whatsapp
