Europe closed out July 2026 with at least twenty announcements tied to new data centers, expansions, and major digital infrastructure investments, adding up to a pipeline of more than 3.2 GW, according to a roundup by BtMData. Spain, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, and the Nordic countries account for much of the activity, as demand for AI-ready infrastructure pushes up both the size of campuses and their power needs.
Europe’s data center wave in 20 seconds
- BtMData tracked 20 European announcements in July, totaling more than 3.2 GW of potential capacity.
- Spain shows up with projects in Madrid, Aragón, Alicante, Toledo, and Catalonia.
- Croatia stands out with a planned 1 GW AI campus.
- Finland, Norway, France, Italy, Germany, and the UK add up major developments.
- Other July projects push the pipeline even higher, though not all express their capacity in comparable IT MW.
The figure should be treated with caution. The projects tracked are at very different stages, and the announced megawatts don’t always represent the same thing. Some companies report IT power, others report campus electrical capacity, grid connection secured, or simply the maximum size a facility could reach through future expansions.
Nor do all the announced billions correspond to investments already committed or executed. For projects that will take years to build out, the figure usually represents the estimated construction cost across all phases.
Even with those caveats, the concentration of announcements in a single month shows the scale European digital infrastructure is now reaching.
From Ferrovial’s 60 MW in Madrid to a planned gigawatt in Croatia
One of the largest projects identified in July is in Croatia.
Pantheon Atlas secured grid-connection approval from Croatian transmission operator HOPS to develop an AI campus of up to 1 GW.
The project also includes a 500 MW solar plant and an 8,000 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). Its backers have put the potential investment at around €50 billion, with construction slated to begin in 2027.
These are extraordinary numbers, but they should be understood as the scale planned for the full build-out, not capacity currently available.
In Finland, Pure Data Centres Group announced an initial investment of €1.5 billion for a 110 MW AI campus in Seinäjoki, with the potential to later exceed 550 MW. The first phase also secured roughly €1.3 billion in senior financing.
Norway saw two separate moves.
Nscale and Nordkraft formed Nordscale Operations to operate AI infrastructure in Narvik, while Polar Data Centers announced DRA02, a 40 MW expansion at its Drangedal campus.
The UK accounts for several projects.
Clearstone Energy unveiled a 300 MW AI campus in Ebbsfleet, and DC01UK secured planning approval for its roughly £4 billion project in Hertsmere. In Reading, a proposal emerged to turn part of Microsoft’s former campus at Thames Valley Park into a 72 MW data center.
Also worth adding is VIRTUS Data Centres, which announced LONDON19 in July, a planned 32.5 MW IT data center in Slough.
The pile-up of projects around London also reflects one of the problems accompanying this growth: finding sites with enough power supply to build new facilities.
Spain racks up projects from Madrid to Catalonia
Spain holds an especially prominent spot on July’s map.
Ferrovial announced a data center campus in Alcobendas, Madrid, with a total planned investment of close to €1 billion.
The first phase, MAD01, calls for a data center with 60 MW of total power and 40 MW of IT load, backed by an initial investment of €153 million.
It isn’t the only Spanish project.
| Developer | Location | Announced project |
|---|---|---|
| Ferrovial | Alcobendas, Madrid | 60 MW first phase |
| Krolmap E&S | Aragón | Up to 150 MW |
| Valfortec | Elche, Alicante | Around 60 MW |
| DC MALPICA AI | Mora, Toledo | 300 MW AI campus |
| Rubix Data Centers / Submer | Flix, Catalonia | €1 billion AI campus |
| Apto / IGNIS | Fuenlabrada, Madrid | 82 MW of grid access and connection |
Krolmap E&S unveiled a tech campus in Aragón with planned capacity of up to 150 MW, aimed at artificial intelligence, high-performance computing (HPC), and cloud services.
In Elche, Valfortec announced a campus close to 60 MW with an estimated investment of around €300 million.
DC MALPICA AI, meanwhile, continues processing permits for a 300 MW AI campus in Mora (Toledo).
Catalonia adds the Rubix Data Centers project, linked to Submer, to turn the site of the former Ercros chemical plant in Flix into an AI campus. The announced investment is around €1 billion.
Another move from July worth adding to the list: the agreement between Apto and IGNIS for the Fuenlabrada project.
In this case, its 82 MW shouldn’t be counted as straight IT power. The figure corresponds to the grid access and connection tied to the development, along with energy infrastructure and renewable supply.
The distinction may sound technical, but it matters when trying to work out how many gigawatts of data centers are actually being built.
Electricity becomes the filter for new projects
Europe’s map shows that the race to build data centers is increasingly tied to power availability.
Microsoft, for example, agreed to acquire land in Grevenbroich, Germany, to expand its regional infrastructure. The announcement signals future development, but a land purchase still doesn’t amount to a built data center.
The Netherlands offers an even more telling case.
Equinix received approval to develop two additional facilities in Amsterdam, AM9 and AM10, with a connection that could reach 80 MW. Grid congestion, however, limits how much can be built out initially.
France has projects of a different scale.
SEGRO and Pure Data Centres Group are working on a 48 MW facility in the Paris area for a hyperscale customer. Aether Infrastructure announced two facilities in Strasbourg with 42 MW initially and room to grow to as much as 400 MW.
Orange and Morrison also agreed to jointly develop five French data centers with a combined planned capacity of 400 MW.
Italy adds roughly 220 MW from QTS Data Centers in Vimercate, near Milan, with a potential investment of up to €2.3 billion, plus another 120 MW announced by Edge Gate and The Blossom Avenue Partners in Lombardy.
There’s also a multinational dimension. CerebraSystem announced plans to roll out up to 200 MW of AI infrastructure across Europe by 2027, with France, Finland, and Norway among its priority markets.
And above the individual projects sits the European Commission’s AI Gigafactories initiative, which envisions up to seven large AI computing complexes and more than €30 billion in mobilized investment.
The EU’s goal is to increase available capacity for training and running advanced models without relying entirely on infrastructure located outside the bloc.
That growth, however, won’t be solved just by putting up buildings.
The new campuses need grid connections that can run into hundreds of megawatts, fiber, suitable land, cooling, transformers, substations, and, increasingly, access to large volumes of AI accelerators.
That’s why an announced pipeline of more than 3.2 GW doesn’t mean Europe will automatically end up with another 3.2 GW of operating capacity.
Between an announcement and a running server stand permits, financing, construction, and, especially, power availability.
July 2026 leaves precisely that snapshot: Europe has numerous projects ready to absorb billions of euros to build AI infrastructure, but available power capacity is starting to decide which ones make it from the map to reality.
FAQ
How much new data center capacity was announced in Europe in July 2026?
BtMData’s roundup identifies more than 3.2 GW tied to about twenty announcements. The figure is approximate because it combines projects at different stages and different ways of expressing capacity.
Which countries have the most projects?
The UK, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Finland, Norway, and Croatia all appear among the markets with notable announcements in July.
What data center projects were announced in Spain?
The main ones include Ferrovial in Alcobendas, Krolmap E&S in Aragón, Valfortec in Elche, DC MALPICA AI in Mora, and Rubix Data Centers/Submer in Flix. An agreement between Apto and IGNIS tied to 82 MW of grid access and connection in Fuenlabrada was also announced.
Why can’t all the announced MW simply be added together?
Because companies use different metrics. An announcement may refer to IT load, total campus power, grid connection capacity, or maximum future expansion — figures that aren’t directly equivalent.
For related coverage on how power availability is reshaping where AI infrastructure gets built, see The Cloud Discovers It Has Geography: The Power Grid Determines Where AI Grows and how Spain’s own push for greener data centers could put its digital race at risk.