Sines, Portugal: Europe’s New Data Hub, what’s happening, who’s involved, and what to expect

Sines used to be a quiet Atlantic port. Now it sits at the centre of one of the fastest-moving infrastructure plays in Europe: a planned cluster of hyperscale data centres, subsea cable landings and interconnection services designed to host AI, cloud and high performance computing at scale. Below I lay out the who, what, why and how, with direct quotes from the people driving the project, timelines and the trade-offs to watch.

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What’s being built, and how big is it?

Start Campus is developing the SINES Data Campus, a purpose-built site for AI and cloud workloads. The full campus is planned to reach about 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of IT capacity across multiple buildings; the first building, SIN01, is operational and provides roughly 26 megawatts (MW) of IT capacity with the next building (SIN02) planned at around 180 MW. Start Campus says the total private construction program amounts to roughly €8.5 billion and that the campus is designed for liquid cooling, high-density GPU racks and 100% renewable energy. startcampus.pt+1

“Welcoming DE-CIX to our SINES DC is a significant milestone and testimony of the growing importance of Sines as a connectivity hub,” Start Campus CEO Robert Dunn said as the campus prepared to receive interconnection services. de-cix.net

Who the main players are

• Start Campus: the developer of the SINES DC campus and the lead organiser of the site’s infrastructure. startcampus.pt
• Microsoft: announced a major investment into AI infrastructure at Sines, saying it will partner with Start Campus and others to expand AI compute capacity in Portugal; Microsoft’s leadership framed the move as one of its largest European AI investments. Microsoft’s plans involve working with partners (including Nscale and NVIDIA) to host tens of thousands of high-end GPUs. Reuters+1
• NVIDIA and Nscale: hardware and AI infrastructure partners referenced in partnership announcements and reporting on GPU deployments at Sines. Reuters+1
• DE-CIX: the global, neutral Internet Exchange operator that deployed interconnection services at SINES DC to enable local and international traffic exchange. Theresa Bobis, DE-CIX Regional Director for Southern Europe, described the Sines presence as a key extension of their footprint. de-cix.net
• EllaLink and subsea cable operators: Sines hosts cable landing infrastructure (EllaLink and others), giving it direct, low-latency links to Latin America and improved connectivity across the Atlantic. ella.link

These elements, land, power, subsea cables and neutral interconnection, are exactly what hyperscale cloud and AI players look for when choosing a hub.

Why Sines? Location, power and connectivity

Three practical advantages explain the choice:

1. Subsea cable connectivity. Sines is a landing point for major transatlantic systems (including EllaLink), which gives it low-latency direct links between Europe and Latin America and strong routes to North America and Africa. That makes Sines attractive for international traffic and disaster-resilient routing. ella.link
2. Power and cooling solutions. Start Campus emphasises 100% renewable energy and a seawater cooling system repurposing infrastructure from a decommissioned power plant, which lowers freshwater use and improves energy efficiency — an important criterion for GPU-heavy AI workloads. startcampus.pt+1
3. Interconnection ecosystem. The arrival of DE-CIX gives Sines a neutral exchange for local traffic and cloud on-ramps, reducing latency and giving operators better peering options. Theresa Bobis said DE-CIX’s presence enhances connectivity for Portugal and beyond. de-cix.net

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The Microsoft announcement, scale and framing

In November 2025 Microsoft publicly confirmed a multi-billion dollar commitment tied to Sines. Company leadership framed the investment as an effort to scale AI compute in Europe and to do so with partners. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President, said the project “reflects our confidence in the potential of Portugal to lead the next wave of innovation in AI” and emphasised the strategic role of Sines’ connectivity and renewable energy. Reporting cited plans to install thousands of next-generation NVIDIA GPUs at the site. Source+1

Benefits: what Portugal and Europe stand to gain

• Economic impact and jobs. Studies commissioned around the Sines project estimate significant macroeconomic benefits. A report cited by national trade agencies and industry press estimated the data centre sector could add up to €26 billion to Portugal’s GDP by 2030 and support around 50,000 full-time roles when including indirect effects. That includes construction, operations, services and knock-on demand for local suppliers. AICEP+1
• Digital sovereignty and European capacity. Hosting massive AI compute in Europe reduces dependence on non-European clouds for high-intensity workloads, helps meet regulatory needs around data residency, and increases regional capacity for research, industry and sovereign services. Microsoft and Portuguese authorities framed the investment as strengthening Europe’s capabilities. Source+1
• Improved connectivity for regions. With subsea cables and an IX onsite, Sines will improve latency and connectivity for Southern Europe, North Africa and Latin America, which can catalyse regional digital ecosystems. ella.link+1

Downsides and open questions

No large infrastructure project is purely positive. Key concerns include:

• Environmental and local impacts. Building and operating hyperscale data centres has local ecological footprints (land use, construction disturbance, and energy demand). Although Start Campus emphasises renewable power and seawater cooling, civil society groups and local stakeholders have raised questions about ecological impacts and the cumulative effect of multiple campuses. Monitoring and transparent environmental assessment will be essential. Sustainability Magazine+1
• Energy system pressure and grid readiness. Even if powered by renewables, the scale of demand requires robust grid planning, transmission upgrades, and clear long-term PPAs. Ensuring that increased demand doesn’t crowd out local industry or residential needs is a policy challenge. startcampus.pt
• Concentration risks. Putting large portions of continent-scale compute capacity in a single region concentrates systemic risk (weather, political, or infrastructure disruption). Diversification remains prudent for resilience. Reuters
• Social and economic distribution. The headline GDP numbers can mask distributional questions: how many high-skilled roles will be local hires versus imported contractors, and will the local economy capture long-term value beyond construction? The answers determine whether communities actually benefit. AICEP

Timeline and what to expect next

• SIN01 became operational in late 2024 into 2025 at an initial IT capacity (expanded to 26 MW in many reports) and is the first live piece of the campus. SIN02 is planned as the larger next phase (c. 180 MW) with further phases scheduled through 2030 to reach the 1.2 GW target. startcampus.pt+1
• Interconnection rollout (DE-CIX) and subsea cable activity continue to make Sines more attractive; expect further IX partners, cloud tenants and neutral service providers to announce PoPs over the next 12–36 months. de-cix.net+1
• AI infrastructure deployments. With Microsoft’s announced multi-billion commitment and plans to house tens of thousands of GPUs, Sines should become a major European node for training and inference workloads. This will attract suppliers, integrators and possibly research partners.

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