The exponential growth of large-scale data storage systems and cloud computing has led to the adoption of a new unit of capacity measurement: the petabyte (PB). To illustrate its enormity, it is said that one such unit could store 200,000 films in HD format each being of 4-5 GB in size.

With the global mushrooming of data centres, the petabyte denomination is being expanded so that 1,000 units will form a zettabyte (10^21 bytes). Even this capacity will become superseded by the year 2050, when it is expected that yottabytes (10^24) and brontobytes (10^27) will be necessary to measure the accumulated honey-pots of governments, institutions and mega-corporations.

The Data Centre of Covilhã has a projected capacity of 30 petabytes which makes it the largest in Europe. The construction, which commenced in 2013, is destined to have four twin towers totalling 75,500 m2 with international certification at Tier III level for performance. security and safety. The owner of this and four smaller regional centres, all linked by the latest IT technology, is Altice Portugal.

Start Campus, an international cyber developer, is well on the way to completing its first large-scale data centre at Sines with an estimated total investment of €8.5 billion to provide an IT power capacity of ~1.2 GW. Last month it was announced that the same developer, operating through a vehicle company. EDC One, had obtained a PIM (Project of Municipal Importance) in Abrantes where derelict industrial land and buildings are to be used for the construction of a similar facility at an estimated cost of €7 billion. The project is to proceed in three phases with completion of the first expected in 2028 with an initial capacity of 300 MW which will be expanded to 800 MW by the end of the third phase.

Much smaller centres wil proliferate within the next five years as Portugal, with its good fibre-optic infrastructure and renewable energy resources, is recognised as the gateway to Southern Europe. In Lisbon, Equinix is building a second IBX facility (LS2) and Merlin has a project with a capacity of 180 MW to handle AI workloads at nearby Vila Franca de Xira. At Aljustrel, Beja FF Ventures are to start with an investment of only €200 million to handle local needs. Soon, such progress will be repetitive in all regions subject to solutions being found to resolve the essential provision for the extremely high levels of energy and water consumption required.

It is claimed that by year 2030 “around 50,000 full-time jobs” will be created by investment of €25 billion without qualifying this by stating that the mammoth buildings and machinery will be largely maintained by robots created and controlled by the superior form of AI which will emerge from the data collated by digital engines. Certainly, the external services of well-remunerated young technocrats will be essential but most of these will be of foreign nationality. Google, Meta, Amazon and other masters of the New Global Order are currently in a frenzy of recruitment for “shooting stars” and digital nomads most of whom are of North American or Far Eastern nationalities.

Data centres are the strategic assets of corporate entities which are almost entirely of U.S or Chinese origin. Thus, the interests and priorities of their stakeholders are not focused on those of the EU or other client territories however much these may desire to integrate with the behemoth of superior Artificial Intelligence.

The Bank of England has seen fit this month to issue a terse warning that the concentration of world investment totalling trillions of US dollars in the transition to the new technology could result in a rollercoaster tumble in both stock and financial markets if the current fevered expectations of extraordinary revenues prove to be overestimated.

Read more here: Data centres - The Portugal News

by Roberto Cavaleiro - 10 October 2025