Poste Italiane to develop 70MW data center in Lombardy, Italy

Italy's state-controlled postal service, Poste Italiane, is moving forward with plans to develop a 70MW data center in Lombardy, northern Italy, marking a significant expansion of the company's digital infrastructure ambitions.

During an earnings call last week, chief executive Matteo Del Fante confirmed that the requisite land and energy supplier have already been identified for the facility, which could be used to train new AI models. He noted that the project has secured backing from major Italian financial institutions and corporate partners, saying, "We have the support of all the major Italian financial institutions and, for that matter, even corporates that could join forces and create a large hub where we could run both training models and inference models on a large scale."

The development follows Poste Italiane's takeover bid earlier this month for Telecom Italia (TIM), which valued the firm at €13 billion ($14.8 billion). Possible collaborators on the proposed 70MW facility include TIM, financial institution Intesa SanPaolo, and developer Coima, according to local reports. Poste Italiane is also assisting TIM in developing a 20MW data center in the vicinity of Turin and Milan, with Del Fante stating, "we will contribute on the capex side" for that project.

Lombardy has emerged as a growing data center market within Italy, currently hosting 65 facilities, according to DataCenters.com. However, several new developments in the region have attracted local opposition, most notably a proposal to build a 240MW facility outside the town of Magenta. In response to such concerns, Lombardy became the first region in Italy to enact a legal framework for data center development. Regional Law No.11/2026 promotes construction on brownfield sites and encourages developers to prioritize sustainability throughout the application process.

Founded in 1862 and headquartered in Rome, Poste Italiane's entry into data center development signals a broader trend of traditional institutions diversifying into digital infrastructure, driven by surging demand for AI compute capacity across Europe.