Microsoft, Google to Invest Over $16 Billion to Expand AI Infrastructure in Europe — Update

By Mauro Orru

Microsoft and Alphabet's Google said they would invest more than $16 billion to expand artificial-intelligence infrastructure in Europe, the latest spending commitment from U.S. tech giants in their bid to bolster AI capacity overseas.

Microsoft said more than $10 billion in funding would go toward a data-center hub in Sines in south-west Portugal, starting early next year. Microsoft is building out the facility with Nvidia, U.K. AI infrastructure startup Nscale Global Holdings and data-center builder Start Campus. The companies plan to deploy about 12,600 Nvidia GB300 graphics processing units at the site.

The Redmond, Wash.-based group said the investment would be its largest in Portugal and one of the biggest for AI computing capacity in Europe. Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith unveiled the investment during the Web Summit, a tech event, in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon.

Meanwhile, Google said it would inject 5.5 billion euros ($6.36 billion) to expand AI infrastructure and offices in Germany through 2029. The company said the sum covers a new data center in Dietzenbach, an existing data center facility in Hanau and works to expand offices in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich.

The announcements are the latest spending commitments from American companies seeking to expand operations overseas to satisfy growing demand for AI services. Tech giants have pledged billions of dollars to beef up data centers, cloud services and AI infrastructure in Europe since OpenAI's release of ChatGPT to the public in late 2022 ushered in a spending frenzy.

Last week, Nvidia and Deutsche Telekom said they would build one of Europe's largest AI factories in Germany under a 1 billion-euro partnership, days after Amazon.com said it would invest more than 1.4 billion euros in the Netherlands over the next three years to bolster its cloud-computing and retail businesses in the country.

Microsoft said in September that it would pour $30 billion into AI infrastructure and existing operations in the U.K. through 2028, while Google said it would spend about $6.8 billion in AI, research and development and related engineering in the U.K. over the next two years.

While Europe continues to draw spending pledges, AI investments in the continent have been tiny compared to the hundreds of billions of dollars committed in the U.S.

Earlier this year, Washington announced the Stargate AI venture to build data centers in the U.S. for the ChatGPT maker. OpenAI, SoftBank Group, Oracle and MGX, a United Arab Emirates investment firm, are the equity funders in Stargate, for which they had committed $100 billion initially, far more than investments seen in Europe.

News Corp, owner of Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 11, 2025 12:01 ET (17:01 GMT)