en.Wedoany.com Reported - Northeast Italy boasts a strong technological supply chain in the manufacturing of data center cooling systems, liquid cooling equipment, and other components, yet it lags significantly in building large-scale data center infrastructure. Companies in the region produce chillers, equipment, and components for data centers worldwide but have failed to attract hyperscale data center projects. This "making clothes for others" industrial landscape has sparked local reflection on insufficient policy coordination.
Data shows that the Triveneto region in Northeast Italy had 33 data centers as of June 2026, a 57% increase from 21 sites 12 months earlier. However, this growth is built on a small base: the region's total facilities are only one-third of the 91 sites in the Milan metropolitan area. A more critical metric is installed power capacity: the entire Northeast region (including Emilia-Romagna) has approximately 48 MW, while Lombardy alone exceeds 414 MW, and Italy's national total stands at 609 MW. This means that the Northeast, long touted as an industrial engine, has less than one-eighth of Lombardy's data center capacity. Meanwhile, Milan has emerged as a European data center hub, expected to absorb about 23% of the continent's anticipated investments.
High-voltage connection applications recorded in December 2025 further reveal capital flows. Of the 69.1 GW applied for nationwide in Italy, Lombardy accounts for 34.9 GW, followed by Piedmont (11.7 GW), Lazio (7.1 GW), and Apulia (3.9 GW). Veneto has only 2.9 GW, Emilia-Romagna 2.7 GW, Friuli-Venezia Giulia 1.8 GW, and Trentino-Alto Adige 0.1 GW. Investor intentions are clearly directed elsewhere.
The Northeast region is not lacking in technological strength. Companies such as Carel, HiRef, Vertiv, Dba Group, BeanTech, and Lu-Ve demonstrate that the local supply chain has global market access capabilities. For example, HiRef has grown with liquid cooling systems that consume nearly zero water and is preparing new factories in Mexico and India. The problem is that the birthplace of these technologies and the scale of demand are often organized elsewhere.
Operators point to specific factors constraining the landing of large campuses, including connectivity and energy. Major submarine cables primarily land in Genoa and Apulia, with the northern Adriatic lacking similar backbone networks. Meanwhile, between 2000 and 2024, electricity generation in Veneto fell by 49.4%; in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, it dropped by 43.5% between 2020 and 2024; over the same period, demand grew by 9.1%. Additionally, uncertain approval timelines and institutional fragmentation deter investors. A large investor seeks predictability, including power supply, access timing, and approval deadlines.
Analysts suggest that the region should not try to catch up by imitating Milan's model but could build a multi-center platform: industrial data centers and edge computing for advanced manufacturing, logistics, ports, healthcare, research, space, defense, and artificial intelligence; infrastructure distributed across major production hubs, connected to universities and the technology supply chain. Each site should be rigorously selected, with incentives rewarding the use of abandoned areas, heat recovery, closed-loop cooling, new renewable energy capacity, and local supply chain integration. It is estimated that each megawatt of data center requires an investment of 10 to 15 million euros. However, operators say no hyperscale projects are visible in the Northeast over the next three to five years. This reflects the consequences of years of treating energy, digital networks, productive urbanization, and investment attraction as separate issues.
