A Microsoft plans to invest 4,3 billion euros ($4,8 billion) over the next two years to strengthen its infrastructure artificial intelligencel (IA) and cloud in northern Italy, the company announced on Wednesday (02).
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A Microsoft said in a statement that this will be the North American company's largest investment in Italy to date. The cloud region called ItalyNorth will be one of the largest data centers in Microsoft in Europe, also acting as a data hub for the Mediterranean and North Africa.
The president of the Microsoft, Brad Smith, met with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Wednesday. According to a statement from the PM's office, the government welcomed the investment, which will strengthen Italy's digital role in the Mediterranean region.
On Monday, Meloni also met with Larry Fink, head of U.S. fund BlackRock Inc, who was in Rome to discuss possible investments in data centers and support for energy infrastructure.
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Last month, BlackRock and Microsoft announced a $30 billion+ fund to invest in AI-focused data centers, AI supply chains, and energy sources, with plans to start in the U.S. market and then expand to U.S. partner countries.
Demand for AI and cloud services is growing rapidly, with companies across industriesariasuch as games and e-commerce, differentiating their offerings through the integration of personalized AI models – programs that use pattern recognition to make decisions.
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