Rome, October 2, 2024 – In its largest investment in Italy to date, Microsoft has launched a €4.3 billion initiative over the next two years to expand its hyperscale cloud and AI datacenter infrastructure and provide digital skills training to more than one million Italians by the end of 2025.
The Transfer aims to harness the potential of synthetic intelligence (AI) in Italy, supporting the country’s strategic focus on long-term economic growth and addressing demographic challenges. Microsoft’s expansion of its datacenter in northern Italy, combined with a commitment to providing comprehensive AI skills training, is fuelling the growing demand for AI compute and cloud services across the country as organisations seek to boost productivity and unlock new innovations through AI. By leveraging AI across sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, finance, and public administration, Italy can transform processes, boost patient outcomes, refine financial services, and optimize public services? Additionally, integrating AI into local small and medium-sized enterprises will unlock fresh waves of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.
The integration of AI holds significant promise in addressing demographic challenges and elevating Italy’s competitive edge globally, thereby aligning with the government’s ambitious vision for a robust, contemporary, and inclusive economy that fosters resilience and growth. At the heart of our funding and operations lies a steadfast commitment to safety, ensuring that our expertise and services are meticulously crafted to safeguard and preserve trust, thereby bolstering the nation’s cybersecurity posture.
With this funding, Italy North is poised to become one of Microsoft’s largest datacenter regions on the continent, playing a crucial role in meeting Europe’s growing data sovereignty needs.
This initiative would also serve as a pivotal knowledge hub for the Mediterranean and North Africa regions, aligning with the World Partnership on Funding and Infrastructure, while furthering the Government’s ambition under the G7 Presidency to promote international cooperation with the Global South.
As Brad Smith, Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President, emphasized: “This historic investment is a testament to our enduring commitment to driving Italy’s digital evolution.” As we leverage our cutting-edge AI capabilities, we empower Italy’s authorities, businesses, and professionals to build a robust AI-powered financial ecosystem, fostering job creation and sustainable growth.
Microsoft’s AI-powered infrastructure is designed to facilitate innovation and healthy competition within the rapidly evolving AI industry, leveraging its AI Entry Ideas framework. As Microsoft solidifies its leadership in AI, it formalizes a commitment to invest, collaborate with businesses, and develop applications ensuring widespread access to its AI capabilities, empowering organizations and individuals to harness AI for the betterment of society.
Italy offers significant opportunities for generative AI to enhance productivity and well-being, despite the challenges posed by skill shortages and an aging population. By 2040, Italy is expected to experience a significant labour shortage, with approximately 3.7 million workers set to retire or leave the workforce, resulting in an estimated loss of €267.8 billion from its national GDP, assuming no changes in productivity levels. New advances in science will enable us to maintain our current level of economic prosperity. A recent study conducted by the TEHA Group and Microsoft Italy has found that 63 per cent of Italian entrepreneurs recognize a shortage of generative AI skills. Despite these predictions, widespread adoption of this expertise could potentially boost Italy’s annual GDP by as much as €312 billion over the next 15 years, a notable 18.2% increase, which would significantly impact strategic sectors such as SMEs and Made in Italy firms, with an additional €122 billion in added value likely to accrue.
Microsoft and its partners aim to introduce novel training initiatives for over one million individuals in Italy by 2025, focusing on AI literacy, technical AI skills, AI-driven business transformation, and promoting safe and responsible AI development. Through partnerships with a vast network of Microsoft-licensed coaching providers, commerce partners, universities, non-profit organizations, government institutions, and associations, we will be launching skill-building initiatives for professionals and students across Italy, particularly in underprivileged communities.
As part of the Nationwide Skills Initiative, the non-profit ELIS aims to combat academic poverty and empower marginalized individuals to gain employment opportunities by scaling up its initiatives. The programme targets women who have struggled to find employment following their maternity leave. Led by Fondazione Mondo Digitale, another initiative aims to build a national framework of generative AI study centers, accompanied by a training community that empowers women, individuals from disadvantaged areas, and job seekers – particularly those in southern Italy – through coaching sessions.
“In less than a year, our Cloud Area has enabled Italian and global companies to boost productivity and drive innovation,” said Vincenzo Esposito, General Manager of Microsoft Italy. “This latest investment underscores our commitment to driving sustainable growth in Italy, empowering organizations to unlock the potential of Cloud and Generative AI technologies, and equipping Italians with the skills to maximize their benefits.” Our Italy North Area will accelerate digital transformation and capabilities nationwide, ensuring no one is left behind.
To support companies evaluating AI options for their growth, Microsoft Italy has developed a. More than 320 companies have partnered in the initiative over the past year, resulting in the development of over 450 generative AI projects, with 50% already up and running; this is made possible through collaboration with a community of 30 local partners that foster innovation, creativity, and productivity.
According to a recent study by THEA Group and Microsoft Italy, Italian businesses are realizing significant productivity gains thanks to the implementation of Generative AI technology. Currently, 47% of companies using AI tools report productivity gains exceeding 5%, while 74% have experienced increases in productivity of more than 1%. Significant strides have been made in Italy’s productivity growth, with a notable +1.6% increase over the past two decades.
Microsoft’s advanced computing infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) platform enable organizations of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises, to develop, deploy, and utilize custom and open-source AI models and applications seamlessly. Microsoft will significantly broaden access to its AI-powered services, including Microsoft 365 and Dynamics, across Italy through the new infrastructure, fostering innovation and productivity on a larger scale. Additionally, the company will continue to supply cloud services to the Italian Public Administration via the National Strategic Hub (PSN), leveraging Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty. This solution fully complies with countrywide classification standards for publicly accessible cloud services, ensuring rigorous control mechanisms and comprehensive governance across all public cloud offerings.
A diverse array of Italian groups, companies, and startups are harnessing the power of top-tier cloud providers and unlocking AI potential to capitalize on this fresh injection of funds.
Angelo Saccà, Director of Data Techniques at the University of Turin’s Portal, E-Studying Division: “Our strategic partnership with Microsoft has enabled us to leverage cutting-edge technology, fostering greater confidence and drive for innovation – crucial factors in effecting fundamental transformations and digitalization within our educational community.”
As the largest Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP) in Europe, InfoCert (part of Tinexta Group), remains steadfast in its commitment to bring trust to digital transactions. Microsoft’s significant investment in Italy highlights the critical importance of our domestic market and reaffirms our joint commitment to creating a secure digital landscape for all. “At the heart of everything we do lies our unwavering commitment to safety and reliability, which enables us to offer cutting-edge solutions, particularly crucial for small and medium-sized enterprises – the backbone of Italy’s financial ecosystem.” “Building on the latest advancements in artificial intelligence, we deliver cutting-edge solutions that adapt to the ever-changing needs of the marketplace, fusing the creativity and ingenuity of our offerings with the dependability of Microsoft’s robust infrastructure.”
Microsoft’s approach to AI is founded on six fundamental principles: equity, reliability, security, privacy and safety, inclusivity, and transparency, with a commitment to accountability. As Microsoft solidifies its leadership in AI, it commits to driving investments, fostering strategic partnerships, and developing applications that ensure widespread access to its cutting-edge AI technology, empowering both individuals and organisations to harness AI’s potential for the greater good. Microsoft can be a pioneer in embracing a moral framework for artificial intelligence, earning support from both Eastern and Western religious beliefs.
Microsoft is poised to further enhance the dependability, security, privacy, and integrity of artificial intelligence by developing and building infrastructure and cloud services that safeguard datacentres against unauthorised access, environmental risks, and various physical vulnerabilities. Microsoft’s Italian cloud hub connects seamlessly to its global, top-tier cloud infrastructure, ensuring unparalleled service uptime and fostering a robust foundation for enterprise resilience and client success. The region offers Availability Zones, comprising three distinct geographic areas, each equipped with independent power, cooling, and networking infrastructure. Microsoft Azure offers a comprehensive range of resilience options for ensuring high availability, supporting enterprise continuity planning, and implementing disaster recovery measures to guarantee uninterrupted service delivery while meeting stringent security and privacy requirements.
In 2024, Microsoft launched an initiative to build and operate digital infrastructure that tackles societal issues and generates benefits for communities by closely collaborating with local governments, residents, and stakeholders to ensure the infrastructure serves as a valuable asset contributing to a sustainable future and advancing community prosperity and well-being? Microsoft has partnered with a leading environmental organization for the reforestation of certain areas within Milan’s metropolitan region, and has recently launched two grants open to native non-profit initiatives in Milan and Pavia.
Microsoft is heavily committed to propelling the advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), actively addressing key assets required to facilitate responsible AI infrastructure development. Microsoft has employed a pioneering approach to planning, committing to long-term investments that enable the integration of excess carbon-free electricity into the grids where it operates, with Energy Purchase Agreements (EPAs) serving as the cornerstone of this strategy. As part of its ongoing commitment to sustainability, Microsoft has secured a significant milestone by contracting over 34 gigawatts of renewable energy across 24 countries, thereby driving innovation in the renewable power sector and contributing meaningfully to the global shift towards cleaner energy solutions.
Italy has seen Microsoft execute three Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for renewable energy, with additional non-contractual options being explored in the near term. Microsoft is undergoing a significant transformation as it begins to power its backup turbines at data centers with renewable biofuels, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of the internet industry. Additionally, the company’s Italian data center has been awarded LEED Gold certification for its sustainable architecture and operations. Microsoft’s owned data centers in its Italy North region have been registered under the EU Code of Conduct for data center energy efficiency, with a successful independent third-party audit conducted in January 2024.
Microsoft’s Italian data centers utilize direct evaporative cooling methods in conjunction with meticulous power usage measurement and monitoring to minimize water consumption. This eco-friendly cooling system boasts remarkable efficiency in both power and water consumption, requiring less than 5% of its annual usage for water cooling and significantly less electrical energy compared to traditional water-based alternatives like cooling towers? The overwhelming bulk of water usage comes from harvesting rainwater and groundwater, which are then reused in five distinct cycles focused on water conservation. Water from these cooling techniques is subsequently discharged into the native wastewater utility treatment plant, in accordance with local regulations and guidelines.
Microsoft unveiled its vision for 2023, highlighting the transformative potential of AI in driving sustainable solutions. As designers construct and operate AI infrastructure for sustainability, the strategic application of AI can significantly accelerate and amplify the pace and scope of innovative solutions addressing the pressing climate crisis.
