Adriatic DC wants to build 2GW of capacity across three sites in Puglia - but few details are available.
A new company is planning several large data center campuses in the Puglia region of Italy.
Adriatic DC this month announced plans for multiple data center campuses across Puglia in the southeast of the country. The company claims the 'Puglia Data Center Valley' will total more than 2GW of capacity at full build-out, but few details have been shared.
Adriatic DC's plans reportedly include the redevelopment of Bari's former Manifattura Tabacchi (tobacco factory) industrial area into a 200MW data center; the development of a 500MW greenfield facility in Brindisi's industrial area; and a 1.5GW greenfield campus spanning 2,000 acres known as the Adriatic DC Hub.
The first construction sites are reportedly scheduled to break ground by the end of 2026, with an initial investment phase of approximately €2 billion ($2.39bn) for the first project.
Further details on any of the projects and timelines weren’t shared. Details on how the developments will be funded were also not shared.
"The Puglia Data Center Valley was created to place Southern Italy and Southern Europe at the center of the new geopolitics of artificial intelligence," said Lorenzo Avello, CEO of Adriatic DC. "Global demand for computing power is growing at record rates. Our goal is to build an industrial platform capable of attracting strategic investment to projects with reliable execution timelines, generating skilled employment, and strengthening both European digital sovereignty and national data security.”
He added that Puglia offered industrial land availability, suitable energy networks, good submarine cable links, and a favorable institutional environment.
“We are firmly convinced that the South can position itself in the new global chessboard of artificial intelligence," he said.
On LinkedIn, Avello lists himself as the founder of managing partner of battery energy storage firm ACL Energy, as well as bio-product firm Rigreen and biomass renewable energy firm Planeta. Prior to these roles, he held positions at Italian energy firm A2a and several investment firms.
Founded in 2022, ACL Energy claims to own an active pipeline totaling more than 5GW, of which 3.5GW has a grid connection secured. The company has a partnership with BW Group’s BW ESS unit, totaling almost 3GW across 14 projects.
The tobacco factory in the Libertà area of Bari, built around the 1920s, has been idle since the early 1980s. Italy’s state-owned Invimit company owns and has been renovating the site for use.
