As demand for data centers surges worldwide amid the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, where and how these facilities should be built has become one of the most prominent public debates in Italy.
Applications to connect new data centers to Italy’s electricity grid have increased tenfold over the past two years. In the Trentino region, meanwhile, some companies are turning to former mines to house data centers and reduce their energy consumption.
A new data center under construction in the town of Segrate, near Milan, is one of the most striking examples of Italy’s transformation. The facility, being built by U.S.-based data center operator CyrusOne, is scheduled to become operational in 2027.
The site previously housed a center dedicated to nuclear research. After the facility was shut down in 2003, the site remained largely unused for around two decades.
Local residents have complained about dust generated during construction and occasional noise monitoring, but they also say the project has helped reduce security concerns associated with the long-abandoned buildings.
AI accelerates data center investment
Data centers have long been a fundamental part of digital infrastructure, supporting everything from banking systems to cloud computing services. The rapid adoption of AI applications, however, has significantly increased demand for new facilities.
Italy now has 259 operational or under-construction data centers, with more than 100 located around Milan and Pavia.
The concentration has prompted the Lombardy region to become the first in Italy to introduce specific regulations for data centers, although the country still lacks a comprehensive national regulatory framework.
Priority given to abandoned industrial sites
Regulations introduced in Lombardy in June call for new data centers to be built, where possible, on abandoned industrial sites.
Projects built on agricultural land or green areas could face additional costs ranging from 100 percent to 200 percent.
The regulations also address the high water consumption associated with data centers. Because servers operate continuously and generate substantial amounts of heat, evaporative cooling systems traditionally used to cool facilities can consume large quantities of water.
The new rules therefore recommend avoiding the use of municipal drinking water or agricultural water supplies and instead adopting more efficient technologies such as closed-loop liquid cooling.
Davide Chiaroni, a professor at Politecnico di Milano, said regulations should not mandate a specific technology because technological development moves faster than legislation.
Former mines offer natural cooling
Intacture, a data center operating in the Val di Non valley in Italy’s Trentino-Alto Adige region, offers a different approach.
Completed in around two years, the facility was built approximately 100 meters below an active mine. The low underground temperatures mean that additional cooling is not required for much of the year.
The same mine is also used to store apples, cheese and sparkling wine.
The facility’s electricity needs are supplied by local hydroelectric power plants.
Electricity demand surges
According to data from the Energy & Strategy research group at Politecnico di Milano, data centers across the European Union consumed a total of 49.7 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2024. In the United States, the figure reached 233 terawatt-hours.
In Italy, requests from new data centers to connect to the electricity grid stood at 55 gigawatts in August 2025 before rising to 69.1 gigawatts by the end of the year.
That represents a doubling from 2024 and an increase of roughly tenfold compared with 2023.
Data centers currently account for 1.9 percent of Italy’s total electricity consumption. That share could rise to as much as 7 percent or even 13 percent by 2035, according to estimates.
In Lombardy alone, data centers account for around 3 percent of the region’s total electricity consumption. Compared with residential consumption, the electricity used by these facilities is equivalent to roughly 20 percent of the total electricity consumed by households in the region.
The debate over digital sovereignty
Industry representatives argue that data centers are not merely economic investments but strategic assets.
Luca Beltramino, president of the Italian Data Center Association (IDA), warned that if Italy fails to build enough data center capacity, it could eventually be forced to purchase AI technologies from other countries, creating a risk to the country’s digital sovereignty.
At the same time, as in the United States, local opposition to data centers is growing in Italy.
Environmental groups and residents have raised concerns over water consumption, energy demand, noise and the conversion of natural areas into construction sites.
Could future data centers be in space or underwater?
Technology companies are already exploring more radical solutions.
Microsoft tested underwater data centers off the coasts of California and Scotland as part of its five-year Project Natick initiative.
China also brought an underwater data center online in June off the coast of Shanghai, at a depth of around 10 meters.
Space is emerging as another potential destination for the technology industry.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has discussed the company’s “Suncatcher” project, while Elon Musk’s SpaceX has applied to U.S. regulators for authorization to deploy data center satellites capable of providing advanced computing power.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also expressed interest in space-based data centers, saying he could see “trillions of dollars” being invested in the sector.
Although these projects remain at an early stage, they point to a growing debate over what data centers could look like in the age of artificial intelligence.
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