Europe · country profile
Data centres and AI in Portugal, ranked against Europe and the US
Portugal ranks 2nd of 26 European countries for cheapest big-user power (€0.067/kWh, H1 2026); its weakest is 23rd of 24 for most TOP500 supercomputing power (4.0 PF, 2026/06). Its data centres reported 12 MW of IT capacity to the EU for 2024 (8 of an estimated 42 sites). It hosts no EU AI Factory (role: AI Factory consortium partner). Sources: Eurostat, Ember, EuroHPC, TOP500, Epoch AI; data as of 2026-10-12.
Updated 12 October 2026 · data build 2026-10-10 · how we know · corrections
Where Portugal ranks among 31 European countries
Rank 1 = best on the measure's own terms (cheapest, lowest carbon, highest share, most). Each rank is among the European countries with a figure, so the "of" number differs. Portugal is an EU member. Measured
No figure for Portugal on: Data centres' share of electricity; GPU-cluster compute (Epoch AI).
Download CSV ↓Source: Eurostat nrg_pc_205 · Ember European wholesale prices (via StackPath eu_power_prices) · Ember yearly electricity data (CC BY 4.0) · Eurostat isoc_eb_ai · Eurostat isoc_ai_iaiu · TOP500, June 2026 list (via eu_compute) · EuroHPC JU (via eu_ai_factories) · Eurostat Comext DS-045409 · EU EED data-centre dashboard (via eu_dc_capacity) · as of 2026-10-12 · Compiled by StackPath
Portugal against the EU-27 average and the US
Same measure, same source family, nearest year. A dash means no comparable figure, not zero. Measured
| Measure | Portugal | EU-27 | US | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big-user electricity price | €0.067/kWh H1 202639% below EU | €0.110/kWh H2 2025 | €0.076/kWh 2025 | €0.165/kWh H1 2026 |
| Grid carbon intensity | 128 g/kWh 202539% below EU | 211 g/kWh 2025 | 384 g/kWh 2025 | 263 g/kWh 2025 |
| Clean power share | 80.9% 2025+9.9 pts vs EU | 71% 2025 | 43% 2025 | 47.7% 2025 |
| Data centres' share of electricity | no figure | 3% 2024 | 4.4% 2023 | 23.2% 2025 |
| Businesses using AI | 11.5% 2025−8.4 pts vs EU | 19.9% 2025 | – | 19.6% 2025 |
| People using generative AI | 38.7% 2025+6 pts vs EU | 32.7% 2025 | – | 44.9% 2025 |
| Electricity use per person | 5.6 MWh 20259% below EU | 6.2 MWh 2025 | 13.3 MWh 2025 | 6.8 MWh 2025 |
| Supercomputing per million people | 0.4 PF 2026/0696% below EU | 10.2 PF 2026/06 | 20.6 PF 2026/06 | 1.2 PF 2026/06 |
| GPU compute per million people | no figure | 177 H100e 2025-07 | 3,660 H100e 2025-07 | – |
Source: Eurostat nrg_pc_205, isoc_eb_ai, isoc_ai_iaiu · Ember · EIA via eu_power_prices · LBNL via US DOE (US data-centre share) · Ember Grids for data centres (Europe share) · TOP500 · Epoch AI GPU clusters · World Bank population · as of 2026-10-12 · Compiled by StackPath
Our reading. Per person, Portugal has 1.8% of the US level of TOP500 supercomputing power. Epoch's database covers only part of the world's AI compute, and private clusters are under-recorded everywhere. Estimate
Power: 81% clean generation, €0.067/kWh for the largest users
Generation mix in 2025 (Ember); big-user prices exclude VAT (Eurostat band IG, 150 GWh a year or more). Measured
Share of generation by source, 2025. Darker bars are fossil. Demand 60.4 TWh; generation 51.1 TWh; net imports 9.3 TWh. Carbon intensity 128 gCO2e/kWh (EU-27: 211; US: 384).
Big-user electricity price, € per kWh excluding VAT, by half-year (band IG). The EU-27 average is published later than country figures.
Wholesale power averaged €73/MWh over 2025-10 to 2026-09 (4th cheapest of 27). Taxes and levies (excluding VAT) were 3.9% of the big-user price in Eurostat's latest year-end comparison.
Source: Ember yearly electricity data (CC BY 4.0) · Eurostat nrg_pc_205 · Ember wholesale prices via eu_power_prices · Compiled by StackPath
Data centres: 12 MW of IT capacity reported to the EU
Electricity share, capacity reported under the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED, the EU's data-centre reporting law), grid requests, restrictions and energy rules. Reported
- Reported to the EU (EED): 12 MW of IT capacity at 8 sites for 2024, of an estimated 42 sites that should report; average PUE (power usage effectiveness: total power ÷ IT power) 1.58. Coverage is partial, so this is a floor.
On top of national rules, 7 EU-level rules apply to data centres in every member state (EED reporting, the rating scheme and heat-reuse rules).
Source: EU EED data-centre dashboard · Compiled by StackPath
Cloud and capital: €8.9bn pledged by hyperscalers, €0bn with visible building
Hyperscaler pledges (a pledge is not a building), sovereign-cloud offers by jurisdiction, and neocloud (GPU cloud) sites. Reported
| Company | Pledge | Announced | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft | $10bn ('more than ten billion dollars' per ECO News) | 2025-11-11 | unknown |
1 current pledge worth €8.9bn; €0bn of it is stalled (paused, delayed or cancelled). Horizons and currencies differ.
Neocloud sites in Portugal
| Company | Site | MW | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nscale | S-1 site 1 colocation | 30 (live) | active |
| Nscale | S-1 site 13 owned | 200 (contracted) | contracted |
| Northern Data / Taiga Cloud (now Quake AI, RUM Group) | Portugal (Taiga Cloud Portugal) | – | Subsidiary listed in RUM 10-Q |
Source: StackPath eu_pledges (company announcements) · StackPath sovereign_cloud · StackPath eu_neoclouds (filings, company releases) · Compiled by StackPath
Compute: 4 PF on the TOP500
Public AI Factories (EuroHPC), gigafactory bids, the TOP500 supercomputer list and Epoch AI's database of GPU clusters (in H100-equivalents: compute expressed as a number of Nvidia H100 chips). Measured
- EuroHPC role: AI Factory consortium partner.
- TOP500 (2026/06): 1 system, 4 PF combined (0.02% of the list).
- GPU clusters (Epoch AI): none recorded for Portugal (Epoch's database is partial; absence means none recorded).
AI gigafactory bids based here
- Portuguese public-private consortium (incl. Altice Portugal and NOS (reported)); EoI reported
The EU gigafactory tender closes 3 Dec 2026; bidders are not published, so this lists public announcements only.
Large AI clusters announced or built
| Cluster | MW | GPUs | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start Campus Sines (Nscale/Microsoft) | 1,200 | 12,600 | under construction |
In Epoch AI's frontier data-centre list: Start Campus Sines Data Campus (Nscale, 33 MW).
Source: EuroHPC JU via eu_ai_factories · TOP500 June 2026 · Epoch AI (CC BY 4.0) · StackPath eu_compute (announced clusters) · Compiled by StackPath
AI use: 39% of people used generative AI in 2025 (EU: 33%)
Eurostat's surveys of businesses (10+ employees, any AI technology) and of people aged 16–74 (generative AI tools in the last three months), plus AI labs headquartered here. Measured
Share of businesses with 10 or more employees using at least one AI technology (Eurostat isoc_eb_ai; survey years only). Portugal: 11.5% in 2025, 22nd of 28.
Share of people aged 16–74 who used generative AI tools in the three months before the 2025 survey. There is no comparable official US series.
Source: Eurostat isoc_eb_ai · Eurostat isoc_ai_iaiu · StackPath eu_ai_labs (Epoch AI, company releases) · Compiled by StackPath
Servers: 0% of the EU's server imports from outside the EU land in Portugal
Customs flows (Eurostat Comext), not machines installed: ports of entry such as the Netherlands count goods that move on. Measured
- Servers (HS 847150) from outside the EU, 2025-08 to 2026-07: €8.3m, 20th of 27 member states.
- All compute kit (servers, parts, network gear, chips) from outside the EU, last 12 months: €177m (0.2% of the EU total, rank 19); servers down 13% on the previous 12 months.
Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409 · StackPath eu_hardware_imports · Compiled by StackPath
What our data does not show for Portugal
Gaps, not zeros: a missing row means no public figure we could check, or that the series does not cover this country.
- No official or estimated figure for data centres' share of electricity.
- No published data-centre grid-queue figure.
- No Chips Act fab or pilot line in our ledger.
- No AI lab or AI-chip startup in our European tables.
Deeper pages and other countries
Each layer has its own page with the full European table.
- The country scorecard (18 largest markets)
- Electricity prices for data centres
- Data-centre capacity and electricity use
- Data-centre grid queues
- Restrictions and moratoriums
- Data-centre energy rules
- Hyperscaler pledges vs builds
- Sovereign cloud
- Neoclouds
- EU AI Factories and gigafactories
- AI compute in Europe
- Chips Act fabs
- AI chip startups
- European AI labs
- Server imports
- The global AI compute race
All 31 country profiles
Our reading. Against Ireland, Portugal pays 60% less for big-user power and runs a cleaner grid (128 vs 263 gCO2e/kWh). Where data centres and AI compute go also depends on grid access, land, fibre, tax and customers, which these measures do not capture. Our reading
Questions people ask
- How much do large electricity users pay in Portugal?
- Eurostat's average for users of 150 GWh or more a year in Portugal was €0.067/kWh in H1 2026, excluding VAT: 2nd cheapest of 26 European countries with a figure. The EU-27 average was €0.110 (H2 2025); US industrial users paid about €0.076 in 2025 (EIA, all industrial users).
- How much electricity do data centres use in Portugal?
- Portugal publishes no national total. Its data centres reported 12 MW of IT capacity to the EU's database for 2024 (8 of an estimated 42 sites), a floor rather than a total.
- Does Portugal host an EU AI Factory?
- No. Its role in the EuroHPC programme: AI Factory consortium partner.
- How many people and businesses in Portugal use AI?
- 38.7% of people aged 16–74 used generative AI tools in the three months before the 2025 survey (EU-27: 32.7%). 11.5% of businesses with 10 or more employees used at least one AI technology in 2025 (EU-27: 19.9%). Source: Eurostat.
- How does Portugal compare with Ireland?
- Big-user power: €0.067 vs Ireland's €0.165/kWh; grid carbon: 128 vs 263 gCO2e/kWh; data centres' share of electricity: no figure vs 23.2%; people using generative AI: 38.7% vs 44.9%.