The Data Centre Investment Outlook for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Digital infrastructure capital investment interest in CEE data centre markets is gathering pace. 

Yet this is not a single market.  

This second Insight article on CEE data centre markets provides perspectives on capital, identifying opportunities, navigating regulation, key projects and players and how countries are preparing for the revolution in digital infrastructure requirements.

It offers a selection of CEE country frontier profiles covering:

Poland
Romania
Austria
Czechia and Slovakia
Hungary

POLAND

GDP: $1,039 billion
Population: 38m
Joined EU: 2004 
Joined Nato: 1999 

The Polish Data Centre Market

The data centre industry is rapidly becoming a mainstay of Poland’s economy.
Poland’s pipeline of data centres is currently estimated at around 500MW delivering  213 MW of IT load. It is reported that 80%-85% of existing capacity is located around Warsaw.

As a launch pad for growth the capital city is where the cloud providers landed and expanded cloud regions from 2020 thus accelerating the growth of an ecosystem of collocation data centres.

In 2025 Microsoft working with the Polish Government announced a data centre build investment of 700m euro in Warsaw due for completion this year. AWS and Google cloud regions are hosted in commercial collocation facilities in and around the city. 

Krakow and Poznan are two emerging hubs, backed by the Polish government and the EU JRC supercomputing initiative. 

Capacity

While forecasts vary in terms of acceleration – Poland’s data centre capacity is about 213 MW of live IT load, with a total pipeline of 510 MW (Q3 2025 data, DC Byte).

There is around 300 MW under planning or construction. Poland expects to reach 600MW by 2030 and become a 1.2GW market by 2034.

For the AI dedicated market, Poland’s DC Association believes Poznan, located midway  between Warsaw and Berlin provides an ideal connection hub from east west from Poland and Western Europe and North South from the Nordics to Southern Europe and the Balkans.

It says Northwest Poland shows strong potential due to proximity to Germany, abundant power, renewable investments, and upgraded transmission infrastructure.

Poznań has seen Beyond.pl  launch the first phase of a NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD AI factory data centre campus with 100MW of capacity.

DL Invest Group, which is building a 50MW site in Teresin in central Poland has said it identified four sites in southern Poland which could reach a combined 380MW of capacity.

In 2020 Global Compute Infrastructure, a data center infrastructure platform backed by Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division, acquired Warsaw based Atman. Last year Atman announced a $345m investment to build out in Warsaw and other Polish locations.

Richard Ludwig, Director, Investment Banking at Alantra has worked on developments and M&A in the Polish data centre market over the last decade.

He says there remains work for Government to support the sector. Although the colocation market has grown rapidly over the past 5 years, with regards to larger AI campuses power is still expensive compared to the rest of Europe and the grid is highly dependent upon fossil fuels. 

“Notwithstanding that, CEE is a large market and Poland is the leader in the region with a stable government and strong labour force which has made it highly attractive to US hyperscalers. Compared with Western European markets where land, power and planning can be a huge bottleneck, there are pockets of power that could be used for data centre capacity., especially outside of Warsaw.” he said.

Power 

Traditionally Poland’s energy system saw power generated in the south of the country and distributed northwards.

Today Poland is working hard to shed its reputation as a coal dependent energy producer. 

Through a combination of renewable wind and nuclear development the 2030 target is for around 32% of Poland’s power generation to be green or low-emission. Under the Energy Policy of Poland until 2040 Share of coal in electricity generation limited to 56% in 2030. Natural gas will be a ‘bridge fuel’ and share of final energy consumption from renewable sources will be at least 23% in 2030.

Going forward the energy system transition plan is focussed around renewable offshore wind assets located in the Baltic Sea, Nuclear Power and investment in high voltage grids in northwest of the country. 

According to www.world-nuclear.org the country’s first nuclear power reactor with a capacity of 1-1.6GW will be commissioned in 2036 in northern Poland*. Further reactors will be commissioned every 2-3 years up to a total of six.

The country’s Ministry of Climate and Environment has approved plans for a fleet of 24 SMRs (7.2 GW total), with the first due for operation in 2032.
Poland’s strategy of reduced fossil fuel dependency is being pushed as making DC development more attractive especially in north south and north west / north east corridors.

More Information is available in “Poland – A Cool Place for Data Centres”.

Climate – Heat and Cold

Cool climate: Poland has one of the lowest average temperatures in Europe outside the Nordics.

District heating networks: Poland claims the second-largest network in Europe, easing the potential for waste heat reuse from data centres.

Strong government–industry cooperation on sector coupling (data centres + heating networks).

Planning and Permitting

Poland’s planning and permitting regimes remain complex and fragmented.

The national Digitalisation Strategy recognises data centres as strategic infrastructure and the Government is said to be working on goals to simplify administrative procedures.

A special legislative act for a National Data Centre project is being explored as a template for the wider industry.

According to the Data Centre Association there is ongoing collaboration between government and the data centre sector to streamline development, inspired partly by UK best practices.

ROMANIA

GDP: $423 billion 
Population: 19m
Joined EU: 2007
Joined Nato: 2004

The Romania Data Centre Market

Romania is working to position itself as CEE’s next big market after Poland with the aim being to build the country's position on the European data centre map.

There are numerous projects of significant scale.

In December 2025  data centre investment firm Accelerated Infrastructure Capital (AIC) announced an equity partnership with Romanian operator ClusterPower for a new 800MW AI Factory development on two campuses in southwestern Romania.

The phased build plan will see  the Mischii Campus 1 Phase 1 – up to 20 MW (IT Load) – ready for fit out;  Phase 2 – up to 88 MW –available end 2026/early 2027; Phase 3 – c.125 MW –available in 24 months; and Phase 4 – c.250 MW –available in 36 months.  The nearby Fauresti Campus will accommodate up to 300MW in parallel.

With advanced Nvidia-compliant designs and plans for the new AI hub  in Craiova “ClusterPower brings the secured land and power to the partnership and its established and operational existing facilities, including an owned onsite substation and onsite power generation. AIC is leading on capital structuring and is also leveraging its established relationships and experience,” the companies said.

Oliver Jones, Managing Partner and Co-Founder, AIC, told Platform Insight: “People asked why go to Western Romania? It was a combination of immediately available power from renewable sources, and the price of that power. In ClusterPower we found a site with existing capacity that could grow to AI factory scale of 800MWs+, a knowledgeable management team, the necessary data centre skills and engineering capability and Government backing. From this location we're going to be serving eastern, and south eastern Europe and ultimately, the whole of the EU.”

Real estate developers such as Portland Trust are emerging as important players by securing ready-to-build sites with 150 MW of power capacity around Bucharest.

The Black Sea AI Gigafactory  bid to be part of the EuroHPC JU infrastructure developments could be worth up to €5billion euro.  

The plan is for a two phase project. Phase one (Cernavodă), will be located close to an existing nuclear power plant and phase 2 (Doicești) to use a newly built SMR.

Ultimately, the plan proposes 1.5GW of nuclear and renewable power and a data centre with 100,000 GPUs. 

According to the Romanian government neighbours Molodova, Turkey and Ukraine has expressed support. 

Elsewhere the Government is investing in funding digital technology and big data platforms for state institutions, amounting to hundreds of millions of euros through the implementation of Clouds for public sector IT which in turn is supporting the development of the data center industry. 

Says infrastructure design and build firm Tema Energy, a company active in promoting Romania’s public and private digital transformation ecosystem development in AI, supercomputing, and hyperscale data centres, the message from the DC sector in centres on ‘balanced and mostly renewable energy production mix, competitive construction and operation costs, excellent human capital, and a strategic position in regional connectivity networks.’

It says: “Romania is on its path to formulate and implement an integrated national strategy for AI and digital infrastructure, to ensure its own digital sovereignty, and to attract foreign investment in the digital economy.”

Romania Data Centre Market – Investors Driving Market Growth

Large-scale international and strategic investors are key to growth in AI and digital infrastructure.

Private-sector growth is led by established local and international telecom and data centre operators (Vodafone, Orange, M247, GTS, NX Data), mainly in Bucharest and Cluj, with ongoing expansions.

Government Support: Current State - 3–5 Year Outlook for Romania’s DC Ecosystem

There exists strong political and local investor appetite to elevate Romania from a secondary market to a regional data centre and AI hub.

Progress is being made on a coherent national AI and digital infrastructure strategy, focused on digital sovereignty and investment attractiveness with positive signals that successful European policy models could be adopted.

Industry promotion is largely driven by private-sector leadership. The market appears close to a maturity inflection point, potentially attracting multi-billion-euro international developments.

Growth will depend on:

• Expansion of existing commercial campuses
• Delivery of the Ro-AI Factory Supercomputer 
• Progress on major projects from ClusterPower and Portland Trust
• Entry of a new wave of US and local investors targeting AI and neo-cloud platforms

As with other CEE territories where ambitions are strong, execution will determine outcomes.

AUSTRIA

GDP $559 billion
Population: 9.2m 
Joined EU: 1995
Joined NATO : N/A – Neutral

The Austria Data Centre Market 

As a mature Western economy Austria already operates a data centre sector of significant size with total investment in the market projected to reach $1.1 billion by 2030 with a market growth estimated at 15% CAGR (2024-2030). 

With much of this investment deployed in the east of the country in and around Vienna, the area has significant east west and north south proximity benefits.

Austria’s gateway potential between east and west is based on established connectivity and installed IT load that accounts for 74% of the 207MW of installed capacity today that is expected to rise across the country to 350MW by 2030.

The dominant data centre cluster due to connectivity, government presence and proximity to CEE markets. Around 80% of third-party data centre capacity is located in Vienna. 

Major advantages:

• Regional connectivity hub linking Prague, Bratislava, Budapest and Zagreb. 
• High fibre penetration and strong enterprise demand.  

Key Location Clusters

Vienna

Lower Austria (Vienna periphery)

Growing as an overspill location for hyperscale campuses due to land availability and power access.

Secondary markets such as Graz, Salzburg, Linz and Innsbruck are expected to attract moduarl and edge investment opportunities linked to research and manufacturing clusters.

To date operators developing data centres in Austria include are a mix of telecom operators, colocation specialists and hyperscale cloud providers.

• There include operators Digital Realty (Planned 40 MW data centre expansion near Vienna), NTT Global Data Centers (8,400 m² carrier neutral site in Vienna targeting multinationals expanding into CEE, and AtlasEdge. On the telecoms side A1 Telekom Austria Group, Magenta Telekom make Vienna a major interconnection hub.
  
  Local Investors include GRZ IT Center GmbH, Raiffeisen Informatik GmbH & Co KG, STACKIT.

Hyperscalers Microsoft, AWS and Google are present.

In February 2026 Google received permitting approval for a data centre in Kronstorf, Austria. The 42,000 sq mt factility will be the tech giant’s first owned and operated site in the country.

Power

Over 88% of Austria’s electricity comes from renewable sources, mainly hydropower. 

Vienna connects Western Europe to emerging CEE digital markets.

Government digital strategy

National AI strategy, Ö-Cloud initiative for sovereign cloud infrastructure, Cybersecurity and digitalisation programmes. 

Key Constraints

1. Land scarcity in Vienna limiting hyperscale development. 
2. Grid constraints in parts of the country. 
3. Smaller domestic market compared with major European hubs.

As a result, hyperscale facilities increasingly move to Lower Austria or other nearby regions.

Expect growth of hyperscale cloud regions. Expansion of AI-ready high-density data centres. Development of edge data centres tied to 5G networks.

Austria is evolving into a secondary European data-centre hub focused on CEE connectivity, green power availability and sovereign cloud demand.

CZECHIA

GDP: $383 billion 
Population: 10.6m 
Joined EU: 2004 
Joined NATO: 1999

The Czechia Data Centre Market

With an estimated capacity of around 150MW, forecast to reach 180+ by 2030 Czechia is considered bigger than many CEE peers.

It is ranked as a larger secondary hub with a historically significant retail colocation market

Prague has a resilient, highly connected fibre infrastructure and is the country’s primary hub with 14 third-party data centers with more than 85% of the Czech Republic's total data centre power capacity.

The market is driven by high demand from IT, telecom, and automotive sectors (e.g., Škoda. Providers include CE Colo, TTC TELEPORT, MasterDC, and GTS (T-Mobile)

Czech data center market projections suggesting the broader colocation market in the country could reach USD 443.1 million by 2030 fuelled by 5G expansion, AI adoption, cloud service provider investments (AWS, Microsoft, Google), and a strong local IT/STEM sector.

CRA - Czech Radiocommunications, a member of the Czech & Slovak Digital Infrastructure Association (CSDIA), is a decades old infrastructure company that has emerged as an active player in the development of data centre and cloud infrastructure. Its flagship project, Prague Gateway DC, represents one of the most ambitious investments in data infrastructure in the Czech Republic.

The Czech AI Factory (CZAI) will support the development and adoption of AI in Czechia. It will be linked to KarolAIna, a new supercomputer optimised for AI workloads and building on the EuroHPC petascale system Karolina, hosted and operated by IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center.

Infrastructure: Prague boasts a resilient, high-connectivity environment, making it a key regional hub. 

Incentives: The Czech government offers investment incentives, including CIT relief, and land at reduced prices.

In Power terms the country’s grid is stable but developers can expect to deliver investment into power infrastructure.

Slovakia represents a smaller market with limited large hyperscale project potential.

HUNGARY

GDP: $248 billion
Population: 9.6m 
Joined EU: 2004 
Joined Nato: 1999

The Hungary Data Centre Market

Starting from a small power capacity footprint Hungary is working at pace to attract investment and elevate its investment position among infrastructure investors and regional and global data center operators looking to the CEE region.

With 14 data centres the country’s main data centre market is based around Budapest with Debrecen and Győr emerging as secondary locations.

Efforts to make the territory more attractive to Hyperscalers, private capital and developers have begun including the establishment of the Hungary Data Centre Association.

Budapest based infrastructure supplier H1 Systems says: “The Government has started to recognise the role and the importance of the sector. A Hungarian National data centre strategy is in preparation, we’re expecting publication early this year. Other activities are focussed in areas designation and preparation of Ready-to-Connect (RTC) zones, development of an accelerated, simplified regulatory and licensing frameworks, introduction of the data center as a "grid asset" model, development of an investment incentive package and increasing social acceptance.”

Power

Currently Hungary’s renewable resources are limited and mostly based on solar energy.  However, changes to regulations to encourage geothermic energy development have led to test drillings are in planning at several locations across the country.

Hungary’s ecosystem development opportunity over the next 3-5 years is its base of ageing DC infrastructure that requires upgrades to keep pace with digitalisation ambitions.

The country recognises the needs for sovereign AI infrastructure and diversified green energy production as crucial in order to keep pace with the region. 

Market entrants will find an environment where securing power and grid capacity early, locking in planning and zoning clarity, build modularity into both Capex and timelines and quantifying sustainability as the starting point for successful developments. 

See Why East not West is best when it comes to digital infrastructure investment

Covers: Why investors are increasingly looking to the frontier markets of Eastern Europe?
And what they will find.