“We are investing $10 billion in Portugal, in Sines, with Start Campus and Nscale,” said Brad Smith in an interview with the Negócios newspaper, explaining that this investment “is larger than all the data centre investments the company has ever made in Spain.”

The president of the American company says that the technology company is reinforcing its commitment to Portugal, with investments that are making the country a winner in the race to install a gigafactory for artificial intelligence (AI).

“We are building in Europe. Interestingly, one of the largest investments we are making this year in Europe is, in fact, in Portugal,” highlighted Brad Smith.

In October, Microsoft and Nscale announced they would be the first tenants of the Start Campus building in Sines, planning to install 12,600 next-generation Nvidia processors in the Sines Data Center.

The Microsoft representative explained that the companies had already been exploring this partnership, in order to "work towards bringing a high number of CPUs [computing nodes and central processing units], the most advanced in the world, to Portugal."

"There's a way of thinking about what we're doing in Portugal. Countries are competing in Europe for public funding in the European Union to build a gigafactory, and there's intense competition. Portugal has already won the bid with Microsoft because we decided that we're going to build this AI gigafactory in Sines," explained Brad Smith.

The president of the American technology company highlighted the potential of Sines' location, emphasizing the advantage of submarine cables as a way "for North America to be closer to Europe."

The Microsoft leader acknowledges that the investment in Portugal reflects “immense work, from the energy policy followed in Portugal, where energy is cheaper and the climate is good,” also highlighting the country's broadband connectivity.

These conditions make Portugal “a very important and attractive country in Europe for the construction of this type of data centre and this type of investment. This is good news for Portugal, which is in a very good position to compete, not only because of what it has gained over time, but also for future investments,” concluded Brad Smith.