Brad Smith, president from Microsoft
Microsoft’s investment will make the Sines data center one of the main Artificial Intelligence hubs in Europe.
Microsoft will invest 10 billion dollars (around 8.6 billion euros) in Portugal, in reinforcement of the Sines data centermaking the country one of the main European hubs of the North American technology giant. The announcement was made by Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, in an interview with , a few days before his participation in the Web Summit, in Lisbon.
The investment, considered the company’s largest in Europe in 2025, will be made in partnership with Start Campus and Nscale, companies responsible for developing the Sines technological megaproject. This reinforcement will allow the installation of 12,500 Nvidia graphics processors (GPUs), whose delivery will begin in the first quarter of 2026, and is part of Microsoft’s Digital Commitment for Europe, which plans to double the capacity of data centers in 16 European countries by 2027.
According to Brad Smith, Portugal won the “European race” for this investment, which he dubbed the “Artificial Intelligence factory”. “Countries are competing in Europe for public funding from the European Union to build a gigafactory, and there is intense competition. Portugal has already won the tender with Microsoft, because we decided that we are going to build this AI factory in Sines”, stated the president, highlighting that the Portuguese project surpasses all investments in data centers made by the company in Spain.
The choice of Sines is not accidental. The city is today one of the main digital connection points between continents, thanks to presence of submarine cables such as EllaLink, which directly connects Europe to South America, and the future Nuvem cable, from Google.
The Microsoft manager also highlighted Portugal’s energy and connectivity conditions as decisive factors, such as cheaper energy and good weather. “When you add this to broadband connectivity, Portugal has emerged as a very important and attractive country in Europe”, he explained.
The business ecosystem in Portugal, with but 4700 startups and 7 unicorns, is also one of the factors behind Microsoft’s bet. Through the AI Innovation Factory, and in collaboration with Accenture, Avanade and Unicorn Factory Lisbon, Microsoft supports companies and entrepreneurs to scale AI solutions.
The investment reinforces Portugal’s role on the European technology and AI map. “This investment is a testament to our conviction in Portugal’s ability to lead digital transformation. We are not just building infrastructure, we are investing in people, in innovation and in the future of the Portuguese digital economy”, says Andrés Ortolá, General Director of Microsoft Portugal, in a statement.
