Microsoft’s $10 Billion AI Data Hub in Portugal to Deploy 12,000+ NVIDIA GPUs

Microsoft doesn’t seem to be slowing down its global AI ambitions. According to a Bloomberg report, the company has announced to invest $10 billion to build a major AI infrastructure hub in Sines, Portugal, over the next few years.

Microsoft will reportedly partner with Start Campus, Nscale, and NVIDIA to power the new site with 12,600 next-gen GPUs. The compamy further expects the Sines data hub to significantly boost Europe’s cloud and AI compute capacity.

For those unaware, Start Campus had already announced an €8.5 billion plan to transform Sines into a data center hub by 2030. That’s not all; one of its six planned buildings is reportedly up and running.

As stated by Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith, the partnership will help make Portugal a “benchmark for responsible and scalable AI development in Europe.”

With global demand for AI compute skyrocketing since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, this decision could help Microsoft take lead in AI infrastructure race. Not only that, this plan allows the company to help cement Portugal’s place on the map of emerging tech powerhouses.

In a related news, Microsoft AI CEO also revealed that the company can now pursue AGI independently from OpenAI or in partnership with third parties.

via: Reuters