May 23, 2026 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji
The government of Italy has described EdgeConneX’s €3 billion investment as being of “national strategic interest.” The EdgeConneX Campus Italia program, announced on May 14 during a council of ministers chaired by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, will develop three data center campuses in the Lombardy region with more than 300MW of capacity by 2031.
The project is expected to employ around 1,500 workers annually during construction and about 300 permanent staff once operational. It could also generate an additional €5 billion in indirect investment. EdgeConneX is advancing the initiative through its Italian subsidiary, EdgeConneX MCN Italy. To ensure construction begins in Q3 2026 and meets its 2031 completion target, the project is expected to be fast-tracked via a special government commissioner appointed with regional approval in Italy.
Once appointed, the special commissioner will be able to issue a single unified approval for the project. EdgeConneX, originally focused on US edge data centers, has expanded into a global colocation and hyperscale operator with more than 90 facilities worldwide. Its European footprint includes Ireland, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Poland, and Spain, and it also recently announced a gigawatt-scale campus in Sweden.
In Lombardy, major operators including Echelon Data Centres, Vantage Data Centers, Digital Realty, and CyrusOne are also expanding, as the region strengthens its role as a strategic connectivity hub linking Europe with Africa and the Middle East via trans-European fiber routes and submarine cable landings.
