Greece's data center market has entered a period of intense investment activity as it tries to move beyond a small, limited hosting sector and establish itself as a regional digital hub for Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The shift is not a one-off event but part of a wider reshuffling of the global digital infrastructure map, driven by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, rising use of cloud services, the need to store and process data closer to end users, and saturation in mature European markets that are now looking for new locations for large data centers.
According to a PwC study on data center siting in Greece, global trends are pushing the computing power required for AI up by three to five times, while the average size of a data center installation is growing by as much as tenfold, with a shift toward mega facilities that can in some cases exceed 1 gigawatt (GW). The study found that established European hubs, including Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin, are now more than 90% full and facing power grid constraints, pushing over 80% of new investment to areas outside those traditional centers. Athens is recorded as an emerging hub in this new landscape.
The current base, however, remains small next to the ambitions now being discussed. Announcements from domestic groups and international technology companies in recent years raised expectations of a rapid upgrade in Greece's position on the digital infrastructure map. The discussion is now shifting from the scale of announcements to how mature the projects are and whether they can actually be delivered.
In 2025 Greece had around 21 operational data centers, 17 privately owned and 4 public, with combined installed capacity of about 44 megawatts (MW). Attica held most of that capacity, about 34.1 MW, reflecting a market that is currently small and geographically concentrated but now facing far larger investment prospects.
Investment interest tops 1 GW
PwC has already recorded investment interest exceeding 1 GW, about 65% of it concentrated in Attica. Based on data available through the fourth quarter of 2025, total interest ranges from roughly 1.4 to 2.2 GW. That includes about 0.8 GW of announced investment interest, about 0.2 GW of total capacity from 16 requests to connect to the distribution network, and about 1.2 GW from 20 requests to connect to the transmission system. Of that total, around 330 MW in Attica has already received connection terms.
Attica's grid constraints
Attica remains at the center of the race, combining proximity to business centers, telecommunications infrastructure, an existing corporate ecosystem, connectivity to end users and available workforce. But that same concentration creates the region's core problem: its electricity grid does not have unlimited capacity to absorb large new loads. PwC ranks Attica first for investment attractiveness for data centers but only eighth for available electrical grid space with a horizon to 2034. Western Macedonia, Thessaly, Central Macedonia and Central Greece show larger margins of available power by comparison.
PPC's projects in Spata and Kozani
Among individual investors, attention has turned to the Public Power Corporation (PPC), Greece's dominant electricity utility, whose data center plans in Attica and Western Macedonia are raising the bar for the market. The first project is a partnership with EDGNEX Data Centers, part of the DAMAC Group, through the joint venture Data In Scale. The new data center in Spata is planned on a 32,000-square-metre site. The first phase is estimated at about 150 million euros and covers 12.5 MW of infrastructure, with potential expansion to 25 MW. The facility is expected to begin operating within 2027, aimed at meeting rising demand for cloud services and data storage.
PPC's flagship project, however, is in Western Macedonia. At the site of the Agios Dimitrios thermal power station in Kozani, the company is planning a mega data center with initial capacity of 300 MW, with potential future expansion to 1 GW. PPC is reportedly in talks to reach an agreement with an international hyperscaler, and the first phase alone is projected at close to 4 billion euros, about 1.2 billion euros from PPC and about 2.5 billion euros from the hyperscaler for equipment, development and infrastructure. If the project expands to the full 1 GW scenario, total investment could exceed 10 billion euros.
The Kozani project's significance extends beyond the facility itself. It is tied to PPC's transformation from a traditional energy company into an energy and technology group, and to Western Macedonia's new development identity following the region's exit from lignite production. The site was chosen partly for its existing energy infrastructure and technical experience with large projects, and because, according to PwC, the region has the largest margin of available electrical grid space among the areas examined, about 630 MW available through 2034.
Microsoft, Data4 and Dromeus expand
Microsoft remains one of the key international players in Greece's data center ecosystem, with a strategic investment of nearly 1 billion euros to build three facilities in Attica, in Spata and Koropi. Its first wholly owned data center in Spata, with 19.2 MW of capacity, is under construction. For the full rollout of its Greek cloud region, Microsoft appears to be following a mixed model that also relies on partnerships with specialized infrastructure companies, including France's Data4. The goal is to deliver cloud services from Greek soil, giving the country its own Microsoft cloud region. Full activation is expected toward the end of 2027 or early 2028, since all three facilities need to be completed before the Greek region can go live.
Data4, one of Europe's major data center operators, is becoming a key link in the new digital infrastructure chain being built in the Mesogeia area east of Athens. The company has announced an investment of more than 300 million euros for a new campus in Paiania, covering two data centers with a combined capacity of up to 90 MW. The first facility is expected to be completed this summer. If the campus is developed in full, Data4 plans to consider adding a third unit on the same site, which could push total investment to 450 million euros.
Dromeus Capital's plan for a data center in the Spata area is also moving toward implementation. The 300-million-euro project is being developed with Apto, the data center construction arm of the American asset manager PIMCO. Construction is planned in two phases: the first, due for completion by 2028, covers an 18 MW building within the campus, while the second, targeted for 2030, adds a further 28 MW building, bringing the site's full capacity to 46 MW. The investment forms part of a broader pan-European digital infrastructure strategy for Dromeus.
Greece's existing data center operators
Ahead of this new generation of large cloud and AI projects, Greece had already built a smaller core of existing infrastructure that remains critical to the sector today. The most recent figures put the country's operational data center count at 21, with combined installed capacity of about 44 MW. The main existing operators are Sparkle, with 4 data centers and 13.7 MW of capacity; Digital Realty, also with 4 data centers and 13 MW; Lancom, with 3 data centers and 4.5 MW; and Synapsecom, with 2 data centers and 4 MW. Smaller footprints belong to the OTE Group, Cloudrock, Interworks.cloud, Hellas Sat, the education ministry, the National Infrastructures for Research and Technology (GRNET), which operates the Knossos and Louros facilities, and the National Hellenic Research Foundation.
The key shift is that Greece's market is moving from traditional data centers, built mainly for hosting, colocation and corporate services, into a new era of much larger facilities designed for cloud computing, AI and hyperscale demand. That changes the economic weight of these projects and their footprint on energy, networks, land and local communities.
PwC frames the outlook through available grid capacity, siting and regional demand. It estimates that demand for electrical grid space for data centers across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa will rise from 18 GW in 2025 to 58 GW in 2034, an increase of about 40 GW. Of that additional demand, about 5 GW could be served by the wider Southeastern Europe region, mainly from demand originating in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
For Greece specifically, PwC records already-manifested interest of 1.4 to 2.2 GW, while the total capacity of the electrical grid available for data center infrastructure is estimated to grow from 1.9 GW in 2025 to 2.9 GW in 2034. The study cautions, though, that despite adequate grid space nationally, there is a mismatch between areas of high demand and areas of high availability, meaning the challenge is not simply whether Greece has enough electrical capacity overall, but where that capacity sits and whether investors will go to the areas that can actually support such facilities.
Economic potential and risks
PwC links this potential to significant multiplier effects. It estimates that around 1 GW of new data center capacity could mobilize roughly 10 billion euros in construction investment alone, based on an assumed cost of about 10 million euros per MW before computing equipment. It could also create about 1,000 permanent jobs for technically trained staff during operation, and support a wider ecosystem through complementary infrastructure and support services. The same analysis links data centers to the prospect of a broader digital hub, alongside undersea fiber-optic cables and supercomputers.
The benefits, PwC says, can be substantial. Data centers can bring large direct investment, create demand for technical specialties, and strengthen the construction, mechanical equipment, telecommunications, cybersecurity and energy services markets, placing Greece on a map where until recently it had a peripheral presence. They can also serve as infrastructure for a wider ecosystem of AI, cloud services, research applications and digital innovation.
Those benefits are not automatic, however. A data center alone does not create a technology ecosystem. To generate real added value, the infrastructure needs to be connected to universities, research centers, startups, cloud service providers, data-driven businesses, AI applications and training programs. Otherwise, the study warns, Greece risks hosting large, energy-intensive facilities without gaining a comparable productive benefit.
The energy challenge
The most critical issue is energy. Data centers are, in practice, electricity-consuming industries, since their operation requires a stable, uninterrupted power supply on a large scale. The shift from traditional data centers to facilities built for AI is drastically changing the numbers involved: a large conventional data center can consume 20 to 50 MW, while a giant AI data center can reach as much as 1 GW, as both training and everyday use of AI models require huge volumes of computation and, consequently, far greater electrical power.
PwC's study shows that the regions with the greatest investment appeal do not match the regions with the most available grid capacity. Attica, Crete and the Peloponnese are more attractive to investors but have lower power availability, while Western Macedonia, Thessaly, Central Macedonia and Central Greece have larger margins of electrical space. That means the next phase cannot rely solely on investors choosing sites freely. It will require national planning, coordination with the Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE) and the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator (DEDDIE), clear connection rules, and an assessment of the impact on the electricity market.
