Italy declares two €6.8bn data centre projects of strategic interest

Designation as 'interesse strategico nazionale' allows a government commissioner to be appointed for each project to speed up permitting. The 400 MW 'K2 Strategic Infrastructure' hyperscale campus near Milan is budgeted at EUR 5.3 billion and is expected to occupy around 2,000 jobs per year during construction; the 30 MW 'Digital Vault Sulcis' AI data centre by Swiss company Energy Vault, on the site of the disused Nuraxi Figus coal mine in Sardinia, is put at EUR 1.49 billion and around 400 jobs.

Decision of the Council of Ministers of 4 August 2026 on a proposal from the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT). Together the two projects mobilise about EUR 6.8 billion in private investment; the government cites digital sovereignty and the build-out of AI computing infrastructure. The Sardinian project is being built on the site of the former Nuraxi Figus coal mine in the Sulcis area.