Core Stack and Green Arrow Capital plan to invest more than €1 billion over four years in a network of 13 medium sized data centres across Italy, combining distributed computing capacity with renewable generation and an Italian industrial supply chain.
The first projects are planned in the provinces of Cremona and Verona, where the partners expect to secure permits by the end of 2027 before targeting operation during the first quarter of 2028. Later phases would extend the network beyond northern and north eastern Italy towards central and southern regions, creating a national platform rather than concentrating capacity at one large campus.
That distributed model distinguishes the programme from hyperscale developments built around very large clusters of computing in a single location. Spreading capacity across several sites can bring infrastructure closer to users, industrial customers and regional fibre routes while dividing electrical demand between multiple grid connection points. The tradeoff is greater operational complexity because equipment standards, maintenance processes and resilience have to remain consistent across a larger number of facilities.
Core Stack intends to address that complexity through common design, modular expansion and central management. Renewable generation would form part of the site infrastructure, offsetting some grid demand while computing, electrical distribution and cooling are designed as one operating system. Reliable external supply and backup capacity remain necessary because local renewable output will vary with conditions and cannot continuously match the load of a data centre.
Power availability consequently becomes a defining constraint on where the network can be built and how quickly it can grow. Servers, storage, networking equipment and cooling create continuous electrical demand, while AI workloads are pushing more power into each rack and producing correspondingly greater heat loads. Grid connection, transformers, switchgear, backup systems and cooling capacity therefore have to progress together if a permitted site is to operate at its intended computing density.
Higher rack density also changes the thermal design because more electrical energy has to be removed from a smaller physical area. Air cooling remains viable for many conventional workloads, while dense AI hardware increasingly uses liquid systems that move heat closer to processors before rejecting it elsewhere. The final configuration at each site will therefore depend on installed hardware, target availability and local conditions rather than a single cooling specification applied unchanged across all 13 locations.
Italy’s wider data centre market provides the backdrop for that investment. The Politecnico di Milano Data Center Observatory put installed power capacity at 609MW in 2025, up 19% from the previous year, while investment during 2023 to 2025 was estimated at €7.1 billion. Potential investment for 2026 to 2028 was put at €25.4 billion, increasing pressure on grid connections, equipment supply and specialised construction capability.
A programme spanning 13 sites could create repeated demand for transformers, switchgear, uninterruptible power systems, cooling equipment, fire protection, controls, structural work and cabling. Common technical standards would allow suppliers to manufacture against a more predictable specification and could reduce repeated design effort, although local voltage, connection capacity, ambient temperature, land constraints and planning rules will still force differences between projects.
Those local conditions determine how far standardisation can translate into faster construction. A cooling plant sized for one climate or rack profile may be unsuitable elsewhere, while renewable generation depends on the space and resource available at the individual site. Grid infrastructure can also become the pacing item if connection works or large electrical equipment require longer lead times than the building itself.
As projects move into construction, repeated equipment orders could create sustained demand for Italian manufacturers and contractors rather than a single burst of procurement around one campus. The share retained domestically will depend on sourcing decisions and on whether local suppliers can meet the technical standards, volumes and delivery schedules required across the programme.
Cremona and Verona will establish more than the first two addresses in the network. Their permitting, power connections, construction and commissioning will provide the first operating evidence for the proposed combination of modular design, distributed operation and integrated energy infrastructure before later sites adopt the same model.
If those facilities enter service in early 2028 as planned, Core Stack and Green Arrow Capital will begin operating a platform in which common engineering has to offset the complexity of multiple locations. The wider buildout will then depend on whether that model can add computing capacity at useful speed while preserving the electrical and thermal reliability expected from AI and high performance computing infrastructure.
