Technology

Italia accelerates on data centres, 3 maxi investments in a month

The Equinix, EdgeConneX and Vantage projects confirm the government's desire to consolidate the country's position as a strategic hub for digital infrastructure

by Pietro Menzani

6 June 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Three new projects, all in Lombardy. Italia strengthens its investment in data centres. The projects - one by Equinix, one by Vantage and one by EdgeConneX - confirm the government's desire to consolidate the country's position as Europe's digital hub.

According to data from the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, in fact, the investments announced in this field for 2026-2028 are more than EUR 25 billion, a clear increase compared to 2023-2025, when they stood at EUR 7.1 billion. The goal is to close the gap with the United States and other major European economies. Stanford University's Ai Index Report indicates, in fact, that in 2025 Italia had 168 data processing centres, while the United States had 5,427, Germany 529 and France 322.

The meeting between Equinix and Mimit

On 4 June, Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso met with the top management of US multinational Equinix. The meeting was held at Palazzo Piacentini, headquarters of Mimit, and saw the minister receive Adaire Fox-Martin and Emanuela Grandi, respectively CEO and managing director Italia of the world's leading digital infrastructure company, which owns more than 280 data centres globally.

Therefore, as Mimit explains in a note, 'the government's work to attract strategic investments with high technological content and to strengthen the competitiveness of the national production system continues in line with the national strategy for attracting foreign investments in data centres'.

A2A, la road map per data center sostenibili

The project

At the centre of the summit was a significant investment project in Lombardy that, according to a Mimit note, would further strengthen the group's presence in the country and consolidate Italia's role as a 'strategic hub for digital infrastructure in the Mediterranean'.

The meeting came after a discussion between Urso and Attilio Fontana, governor of Lombardy, which led to the launch of a contact group between the government and the region aimed - according to Mimit - at 'guaranteeing the coordination of authorisation procedures and declarations of strategic interest, favouring an orderly and effective development of investments in the sector'.

Equinix's investments in Italia are nothing new: the company has been present in the country for 12 years and already has five data centres located in Milan, Basiglio, Settimo Milanese and Genoa that provide advanced digital services to major global cloud operators and Italian companies.

EdgeConneX and Vantage

The meeting with Equinix's CEO and managing director Italia comes less than a month after another significant summit: the one between Urso and EdgeConneX, a global data centre provider with over 80 active facilities in more than 60 markets and 20 countries. The meeting, held on 14 May, followed the decision of the Council of Ministers to declare the EdgeConneX Campus Italia programme of 'pre-eminent national strategic interest'.

The project envisages the construction of three state-of-the-art data centre campuses in Lombardy by 2031. The campuses will be distributed between the province of Lodi and the southern area of Milan and will be equipped with more than 300 megawatts of capacity. The project is worth around EUR 3 billion and will employ 1,500 workers annually in the construction phase and 300 directly when fully operational. Mimit estimates that the Lodi site will be among the largest in Europe.

In June, the Italian Cabinet considered it appropriate to declare Vantage's Mpx4 project, a EUR 3.79 billion investment in the municipality of Tavazzano, in the province of Lodi, to be of 'pre-eminent national strategic interest'. The operation brings the group's investment programme in Italia to over EUR 8 billion.