Data Centers in Italy: €26.9 Billion Across Seven Programs and a Plan for Choosing Where to Build

Data centers in Italy are at the center of a strategy now being prepared. The Committee for Attracting Foreign Investment (Caie), chaired by minister Adolfo Urso, wants to decide where the new facilities will be built by involving the Regions, to prevent some already highly sought-after areas from becoming saturated.¹² The Asset decree recognized national strategic importance for ten large programs, worth over 35 billion euros. Seven of them are data centers and are worth 26.9 billion.¹²

What has the Committee decided on data centers?

At its latest plenary meeting at the Ministry of Enterprises, the Caie devoted considerable attention to data centers, the centers where artificial intelligence is developed. It considers them an engine of growth that nevertheless requires careful management, with the aim of not concentrating them in places already crowded with facilities.¹² The Committee is drawing up a strategy to guide where future facilities should be located. The Regions will have to propose the areas. The idea is also to involve Italian companies that produce components, equipment for electricity grids, generators and cooling systems.¹²

Which companies and what figures are behind them?

The operators involved in the seven programs include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, OpenAI, Equinix, Vantage and EdgeConneX.¹² The broader picture is the Caie’s portfolio: 88 projects, 72 of them under way, worth 104.7 billion euros from 22 countries. If data centers and large programs are excluded, the core portfolio is worth 63 billion, spread across 57 projects.¹² The South of Italy accounts for 43.4 billion, or 41% of the portfolio. Sicily (16.3 billion) and Puglia (15.5) come right after Lombardy, which reaches 23.3 billion.¹²

What does Terna say about the power grid?

Terna, the operator of the national power grid, counted grid connection requests for new data centers that exceeded 100 gigawatts as of August 31. Lombardy accounted for almost half of them.¹²

What other proposals has the Caie put forward?

The Committee proposes keeping incentives for already validated projects unchanged for three years. It also asks that, within the Fund for Sustainable Growth, part of the resources be allocated to foreign capital directed at strategic supply chains.¹ Among the requests is a dedicated authorization procedure for projects between 100 million and one billion euros, currently excluded from Article 13, and a faster channel for visas and permits.¹ The Caie also proposes an annual meeting with foreign investors and, together with Istat, a national observatory to monitor greenfield investments, those that start from scratch with new facilities.¹

What changes

The weight of data centers among the strategic programs is clear: seven out of ten, worth 26.9 billion. The Caie itself, however, describes a phenomenon that must be managed with care.¹² The location strategy is still being drawn up, and it will be up to the Regions to indicate the areas. The measures on incentives and authorizations remain, for now, proposals from the Committee.¹² Terna’s figure refers to grid connection requests, not facilities that have been built. It nonetheless shows how much Lombardy weighs in the applications submitted.¹²

This article was written by artificial intelligence from the sources cited, without human review. Automatic newsroom by Redazia.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Data center, da Amazon a OpenAi: in cantiere investimenti da 27 miliardi in Italia, Il Sole 24 ORE, 2026-11-04 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

2. Data center in Italia, investimenti potenziali per 37 miliardi: da Amazon a OpenAI, Sky TG24 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹