Who Controls the Data Controls Part of the Economy!

For many years we have become accustomed to thinking about large strategic infrastructures such as ports, airports, roads, electricity grids or telecommunications. Today we need to add others: data centres, cloud, computing capacity and the networks through which an increasingly important raw material for the economy, data, circulates.

By Paulo Lopes, in Business · 01 Nov 2026, 09:01 · 0 Comments

Credits: envato elements; Author: nzooo;

This was another of the reflections I brought with me from the Atlantic Convergence 2026 discussions. We talked about submarine cables, artificial intelligence, energy, data centres, cybersecurity and digital sovereignty. The more these topics intersect, the more evident it becomes that the issue is no longer just where data circulates. It is also where it stays, where it is processed and who controls the infrastructure needed to add value to it.

Portugal can become an important data entry point between Europe, the Americas and Africa. It's an extraordinary opportunity, but we shouldn't be satisfied just because we're an excellent digital highway. If data arrives on our territory, crosses our networks and all relevant processing happens in another country, we capture only a part of the savings that this connectivity can generate.

The same happens with artificial intelligence. Data feeds models, allows you to develop services, know markets, optimise companies, and automate decisions. The greater the capacity to store, process, and use information, the greater the ability to create new products and companies.

This does not mean defending a digitally isolated Portugal. It would be precisely the opposite of what we need. The digital economy depends on international networks, open markets, investment and the circulation of information. Digital sovereignty should not mean, that is, closing digital borders, but ensuring choice, security, redundancy and less dependence on too few infrastructures or suppliers.

This is where the discussion becomes economic. A country that receives submarine cables, produces energy, installs data centres, develops data storage and processing capacity, and creates companies capable of using this infrastructure occupies a different position from one that limits itself to consuming services developed and processed abroad.

Portugal has some of the necessary pieces. We have an Atlantic position, growing international connectivity, renewable capacity, talent and integration into the European market. The challenge is to be able to transform these advantages into a more complete value chain.

That is also why we need to start looking at data centres and digital infrastructure as we look at other strategic infrastructures. Not because all data has to remain in Portugal, but because part of our future competitiveness will depend on the ability to decide where and how it can be processed.

For centuries, controlling trade routes meant having a huge economic advantage. Today, an increasing part of the routes carries information.

Those who control all these routes do not control the economy. But those who do not control any part of the infrastructure through which data circulates, is stored, and transformed risks depending excessively on who controls.

In the 21st-century economy, sovereignty, competitiveness and data will be closer and closer. Because whoever controls the data does not control everything. But he controls an increasingly important part of the economy.