Green-Powered Data Centers Propel €12B Investment and 9,400 Jobs in Portugal

The sale of Altice’s data campus in Covilhã may have looked like a routine €120 million property hand-off, yet it signals something larger: Portugal is edging onto the short list of countries where the world’s digital traffic could soon be parked, processed and powered by green energy.

In a nutshell

• Spanish fund Asterion Industrial Partners buys Altice’s Covilhã facility for €120 M

• Site starts at 6.8 MW but can scale to 175 MW, enough to host hyperscale AI clusters

• Portugal now counts more than €12 B in announced data-centre projects through 2030

• Renewables above 70%, cheap power and new trans-Atlantic cables lure operators

• Sector could inject €3.7 B into GDP and create 9,400 jobs by 2031

Asterion crosses the border with a long play

Asterion, the Madrid-based infrastructure specialist, quietly outbid several rivals to secure the Covilhã campus. The attraction was not today’s 6.8 MW rack space—it was the 175 MW ceiling achievable on already electrified plots next door. With Altice Portugal signing a multi-year colocation contract, the fund gains stable cashflow while reserving room for hyperscale growth that cloud and AI firms are desperate to lock in. If expansion goes ahead, Covilhã could rival tier-one sites in Dublin or Frankfurt at a fraction of their energy costs.

Why global capital is suddenly dialling +351

From Wall Street pensions to sovereign wealth funds, investors repeat the same checklist: cheap land, abundant green electricity, dense fibre grids and a predictable regulator. Portugal checks them all. Submarine cables such as EllaLink, Equiano, 2Africa and Google’s Nuvem converge on the Portuguese coast, making the country a natural gateway for inter-continental traffic. Meanwhile, power prices run below the EU average and more than 70% of the mix already comes from energia renovável. For funds chasing ESG-compliant yields, few European markets look as compelling.

Covilhã’s hidden scalability

Perched 750 metres up the Serra da Estrela, the campus benefits from cooler ambient temperatures, trimming refrigeration bills. Its modular design means each new hall can be bolted on without disrupting live servers. Engineers say the site could host high-density racks above 70 kW per cabinet, ideal for AI accelerators. Crucially, national grid operator REN has pre-authorised additional capacity, shaving years off permitting calendars that hamper rivals in central Europe.

The wider pipeline: from Sines to Castanheira do Ribatejo

Portugal’s data-centre map now reads like a tour of the A–E motorway:

• Start Campus, Sines – €8.5 B, 1.2 GW, sea-water cooling, backed by Microsoft’s $10 B AI pledge

• Equinix LS2, Lisbon – €100 M expansion live since June

• AtlasEdge, Carnaxide – 9.3 MW first phase, two sites planned

• MERLIN Properties, Castanheira – 180 MW campus targeting 2027

• OVHcloud, local zone active from May, bolstering multi-cloud diversity

• Rumoured €7 B Abrantes Megacentre, phased for 2028

Collectively these projects could push Portugal’s IT power from today’s 15 MW in Lisbon alone to 1.5 GW nationwide within a decade—a forty-fold leap that outpaces the broader EMEA average growth.

Economic ripple effects

Analysts at Portugal DC forecast the sector will contribute €3.7 B to GDP by 2031, with other studies stretching that to €26 B under favourable policy. Between construction, operations and supply chains, up to 17,000 direct and indirect jobs could materialise across engineering, fibre deployment and facility management. Municipalities from Vila Franca de Xira to Abrantes are scrambling to zone industrial land, hoping to capture the tax base and high-skill payroll.

Not all sunshine: grid stress and talent shortages

Portugal still needs more electrical backbone investment; consultants warn sectoral demand might hit 8.5 TWh by 2031. Bureaucracy remains a hurdle, with overlapping permits stretching timelines. And while universities churn out software grads, data-centre technicians, electrical engineers and HVAC specialists are scarce. Trade groups are urging “fast-track visas” and upskilling programs to avoid a talent crunch that could send operators elsewhere.

What it means for residents

For Portuguese households, the new data-centre wave is neither abstract nor remote. It promises better-performing cloud services, local jobs beyond tourism and, if regulators hold their line, a showcase for low-carbon industrial growth. Asterion’s bet on Covilhã is simply the latest proof that the country’s digital underground—from fibre optics to green electrons—is quietly becoming one of its most valuable exports.