Across Europe, the AI boom is taking physical form. Data centres are rising on industrial estates, former farmland and plots beside substations: windowless, fenced and humming with electricity.
Europe already hosts more than 3,000 data centres, and with €176bn expected to flow into capacity between 2026 and 2031, the next wave is moving onto industrial and power-secured land beyond the traditional hubs of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin.
Governments describe them as engines of digital sovereignty and economic modernisation.
In the US, these same facilities have already become political flashpoints.
Rural communities are packing town halls over electricity prices, water use, land, tax breaks and the unchecked power of Big Tech.
