Intelligence services build own artificial intelligence infrastructure with €7.5M recovery plan funding
The Portuguese intelligence apparatus has taken delivery of a €7.5 million investment from the Recovery and Resilience Plan to build its own artificial intelligence infrastructure, aiming to analyse growing volumes of data while severing reliance on external cloud providers.
The Sistema de Informações da República Portuguesa, the umbrella body for Portugal's civilian and military intelligence services, will use the funds to acquire advanced computational equipment and a document management system, plus security hardware. According to a technical briefing on the project, the installation — an on-premises AI centre — is due to complete by 31 August 2026.
What the money buys
Approved under the PRR, the EU-funded recovery programme, the package covers three main acquisitions:
• Computational infrastructure capable of processing large datasets at national scale, developing AI models and integrating multiple information sources
• A document management solution to organise and retrieve internal records
• Information security equipment to protect classified material
A guiding technical document states that the new hardware must allow the services to run critical systems in a controlled environment and keep classified compartments isolated from one another.
Moving away from public cloud
The project reflects a push to cut dependence on public cloud services, where data is stored and processed on servers run by external technology companies. For an intelligence service handling state secrets, that external exposure has long been a vulnerability. By bringing computation in-house, SIRP retains full control over where its data resides and who can access it.
Newspaper Público, which first reported the investment, notes that the move towards sovereign infrastructure aligns with the surveillance council's repeated calls for better technology.
Oversight body called for better tools
The Conselho de Fiscalização do SIRP, the parliamentary body that monitors the intelligence services, has been pressing for upgraded technology. In a report covering the first half of 2026, the council highlighted the need for tools that can collect, organise, cross-reference and analyse information — including through AI — to support the identification of relevant intelligence and anticipate threats to national security.
The council's mandate is to ensure the services respect the Constitution and the law, with particular attention to protecting citizens' rights and freedoms. Its semi-annual opinions go to the Assembly of the Republic.
How Portugal's model compares internationally
Portugal is not alone in seeking digital sovereignty for its intelligence work. Across Europe, governments are installing supercomputers and "AI factories" to train their own models without relying on US technology groups. The European Union's AI Act imposes strict rules on systems deemed high-risk, which includes those used in critical infrastructure.
Portugal's approach — building isolated, nationally-controlled infrastructure for classified work — mirrors a wider European shift toward keeping sensitive data within national borders. A separate €7.5 million from PRR bets on the same principle: that the state should own the hardware that processes its secrets.
For a sense of scale, the €7.5 million investment represents roughly a quarter of a percent of the total PRR allocation to Portugal, and would cover around two years of rent for a medium-sized office building in central Lisboa.
What changes for the services
The new infrastructure allows SIRP to process data-intensive tasks such as pattern recognition across communications records, and to run predictive models of potential threats. The hardware will support both the Serviço de Informações de Segurança, which handles internal security, and the Serviço de Informações Estratégicas de Defesa, which covers defence and external intelligence.
While specific technical details remain classified, the stated capabilities — processing massive datasets, integrating disparate sources, isolating classified environments — point toward a significant modernisation of Portugal's intelligence analysis capacity.
