Building a data centre in Milan costs 11% less than the European average

Widening the horizon from Italia to the global data centre scenario, the transformation underway concerns a significant phase of geographic repositioning of infrastructure and investment. According to the report by Turner & Townsend (a professional services company with over 22,000 professionals worldwide), the sector is considered "recession-proof" by 73% of industry experts, and the capital of large funds and hyperscalers is diversifying away from the traditional markets of Northern Europe, the so-called Flap-D (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin), to build new capacity in the southern European basin.

The reason? The saturation of certain markets and artificial intelligence, due to the increase in construction costs that its introduction in these infrastructures is entailing. New high-density data centres, in fact, impose a so-called Ai Premium (the surcharge generated by the required advanced cooling infrastructure) of 7-10% on total costs compared to traditional facilities. "Ai is reshaping the Capex," explains Carlo Matildi, managing director Italia of the British multinational company, "the historical data centre markets are increasingly saturated and Italia is reaping the benefits, with Milan attracting global capital thanks to the scalability that other Flap-D cities struggle to guarantee. Moreover, building in the city of Milan now costs an average of USD 9.79 per watt. A figure 11% lower than the European average and competitive in international comparison. According to Turner & Townsend's Data Centre Construction Cost Index 2025 -2026, it costs 19 per cent less than London's $12.02 per watt and 15 per cent less than Frankfurt's $11.60 per watt, which is an even greater saving than the costs in Zurich ($14.24 per watt) or Tokyo, where the figure is $15.15 per watt.

Despite Italia's strong attractiveness, however, critical issues persist. According to the data, 48% of developers identify network connection delays as the main risk factor, while 83% express concern about the inadequacy of the local supply chain in providing advanced components for Ai data centres. "To realise the hyperscale mega-campuses up to 192 MW that we manage in Italia," Matildi concludes, "the local market struggles to find critical materials such as transformers and advanced cooling systems. The regulatory challenge is therefore compounded by another, the industrial one.