May 27, 2026 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji
Hscale is expanding its presence in Milan after closing on a second large-scale data center campus in the city’s northwest area near Settimo.VBacked by Bain Capital, the company said the acquisition increases its committed capacity in the region to 250MW, with service launch dates targeted for 2028. Hscale plans to invest around €2 billion ($2.32 billion) across the developments. The campuses will support air-cooled, direct liquid-cooled, and hybrid deployments. MXP1 in West Milan is scheduled to go live in Q4 2027 and will include a single 48MW facility, while MXP2 in East Milan is expected in Q3 2028 with three buildings totaling 120MW.
“We designed Hscale’s Milan campuses around a simple principle: the building should never be the bottleneck,” said Oliver Schiebel, CEO at Hscale. “Our base design is liquid-cooled first, built for the most demanding hyperscale and AI workloads, and can pivot to air-cooled traditional deployments in the same physical structure. No redesign, no additional capex. We design and build like this because we understand the long-term commitments our customers must make.”
Hscale said it has partnered with Aquila Clean Energy to secure integrated access to clean energy supplies, rather than relying solely on traditional power purchase agreements. The company launched last year after Bain Capital acquired an 80 percent stake in AQ Compute, the data center arm of Aquila Group, in 2024. Hscale currently operates one live 6MW facility, OSL1, located near Oslo in Honefoss, which was previously owned and operated by AQ Compute.
