Therefore, the recently released estimate that around 200 million euros of direct investment in submarine cables could help attract more than 10 billion euros of technological and digital investment to Portugal deserves attention. By the end of 2026, the country should have 20 submarine cables connected to its coast. We are not just receiving cables. We are building a strategic position in one of the most important infrastructures in the global digital economy.

Our location between Europe, the Americas and Africa has always been a geographical advantage. For centuries we have harnessed it through ports and shipping lanes. Today, a growing part of that advantage passes through the bottom of the Atlantic. Cables carry data, but the real economic value lies in what we can build around them. Data centres, cloud, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, digital services, research and technology companies are looking for places where there is international connectivity, available and competitive energy, adequate infrastructure and the capacity to grow. Portugal meets many of these conditions, and international investors are clearly beginning to recognise this.

At the end of September, I will have the opportunity to moderate two panels at Atlantic Convergence, in Lisbon, precisely on two dimensions that I consider fundamental in this new reality. One of them will discuss new energy models for data centres in the age of artificial intelligence. The other will address the use of real estate assets to expand and densify digital and AI infrastructures. These are discussions that show how energy, real estate and technology can no longer be analysed separately. Artificial intelligence needs enormous computing capacity; this capacity requires data centres; data centres need energy and connectivity; and all of this requires land, buildings, networks and licensing processes capable of keeping up with the speed of investment.

But it is not enough for international investors to believe in Portugal. We also have to start believing more in the advantages of our country and, above all, learn to take advantage of them. This requires more effective national policies, but it also requires much more knowledge and decision-making capacity at the local level. It is often in municipalities, in licensing and in the interpretation of new economic realities that projects encounter difficulties. A municipality that analyses a data centre only by the building that will be built or by the number of direct jobs will hardly understand the entire investment ecosystem that may arise around it.

The cables are coming; artificial intelligence will continue to increase the demand for processing capacity, and international capital is looking for places where energy, connectivity, real estate and stability can coexist. Portugal has an extraordinary opportunity to occupy a relevant place in this new Atlantic economy. Geography has already done its part. Now it is up to us to ensure that our policies, institutions and decision-makers, national and local, can do theirs.