“We were welcomed with open arms in Portugal.” This is how Tesh Durvasula, executive director of AtlasEdge, described to Expresso the way in which the country welcomed the company’s arrival. In Carnaxide, close to the Carcavelos submarine cable station, the new LIS001 data center is being built, a project that, according to the technology consultant, “will bring ultra-low latency connectivity between Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas”, transforming Lisbon “into a data gateway”.
LIS001 is the first of three data centers that make up the Lisbon campus, with a total expected capacity of 30 megawatts (MW). According to the executive director of AtlasEdge, this first phase will make around 5 MW available, and more than half of this capacity has already been contracted by companies that will host their digital services and operations on site. “Before we even opened, customers came to us,” Tesh Durvasula told Expresso. “There are big hyperscalers – well-known names in the sector – and also big Portuguese banks, insurance companies, healthcare companies and some smaller local companies”, he added
The following phases, LIS002 and LIS003, are already in preparation. The second data center is expected to come into operation in 2028, and the third, on an adjacent 10,000 square meter plot, will complete the campus. The project has a total investment of more than 500 million euros.
The expansion is supported by €253 million in green financing, granted on the basis of “strict sustainability criteria”, led by Banco Santander and ING. The financing, with a maturity of seven years, was divided into two tranches: 63 million euros for LIS001 and 190 million for LIS002, associated with environmental goals such as energy efficiency and the use of 100% renewable energy.
“Today’s opening, the addition of LIS002 and LIS003, and this green financing demonstrate the dynamism we are creating across the Iberian Peninsula – a region with significant opportunity for growth,” said Durvasula. “This is a sustainable campus, strategically located and a transformative factor for customers operating in the Portuguese market”, he added.