Tech 24 July 2026

Portugal wants data centres spread across the country — and is prepping six new industrial zones

The government wants to copy the Sines playbook and open new industrial zones to pull data centres and AI infrastructure nationwide. Where they'll go and what they bring.

Portugal has decided its data centres shouldn’t all cluster around Lisbon. The government wants to scatter these giant server halls across several regions — and it’s literally preparing the ground for them. The plan is to bottle whatever worked in Sines and carry it inland.

Where will the new industrial zones go?

The idea is to build six new business reception areas, medium to large, with Minister for Territorial Cohesion Manuel Castro Almeida talking about plots of three to eight square kilometres — roughly 300 to 800 hectares each. These are sites designed from scratch for hyperscalers, artificial-intelligence infrastructure and other heavy investments that need lots of space, lots of power and solid connections. It slots neatly into the €400m bet on artificial intelligence the country has been assembling.

Why did Sines become the model?

Because the numbers speak for themselves. The Sines industrial zone, on the Costa Vicentina, has already pulled in more than €25 billion in investment across energy, industry and data projects. That’s the magnet the government wants to recreate — and Castro Almeida has pointed to as many as seven large-scale new “Sines” in the pipeline. The message is plain: spread the investment rather than pile it into one spot on the map.

What is the National Data Centre Plan?

It’s the framework holding all this up. The Council of Ministers approved the National Data Centre Plan and its 2026-2027 Action Plan, formalised in March and published in April. It sets out 15 measures to run through 2027, grouped into four fronts — regulation and governance, energy and infrastructure, market demand, and territorial development — with environmental and energy-efficiency goals woven in. The official detail sits on the government’s portal.

Does it bring jobs?

It does, and that’s half the point: new industrial zones mean construction, operations and services around them, especially in regions that have long been asking for investment. The flip side is how thirsty these sites are for power and water, a debate already heating up elsewhere. If Portugal can balance the two, it stands to grab a slice of a market that only looks set to grow.

By Oliver Grant

Image: Christopher Bowns / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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