HSCALE, the hyperscale data centre firm backed by Bain Capital, today announced the closing of its second large-scale data centre campus in Northwest Milan. The transaction brings HSCALE’s total committed power capacity in the Milan metropolitan area to 250MW, with ready-for-service dates in 2028.
The combined Milan investment represents over €2 billion of capital deployment in the region, with pre-construction and procurement activities already underway to ensure delivery in line with customer demand.
Doubling Down on Milan
Both HSCALE campuses are located within Northwest Milan (Settimo): one of the most constrained and strategically important geographies in the market. All major hyperscalers are already present and growing in this area, making it a primary deployment zone for cloud infrastructure in Southern Europe.
Both sites are fully owned with power committed with key development milestones already achieved.
This level of site control and delivery certainty sets HSCALE apart in a market where securing land, power and permits can take a considerable amount of time. With both sites advancing through pre-construction, HSCALE is positioned to deliver capacity at scale and on schedule.
Built for the Future
HSCALE’s Milan campuses feature a design philosophy refined over 12 months of engineering work to align with hyperscaler specifications. The base design allows customers to move between different cooling methodologies: air-cooled, direct liquid-cooled or hybrid configurations with minimal impact on customer spend.
This flexibility matters, as high-density AI workloads increasingly require high-performance liquid cooling, while traditional networking, compute and storage systems continue to grow and still require a mixed combination of cooling methods. HSCALE’s approach means customers can deploy today and adapt as their infrastructure needs evolve, without redesigning their facilities.
A vision for the region
“We designed HSCALE’s Milan campuses around a simple principle, the building should never be the bottleneck. Our base design is liquid-cooled first, built for the most demanding hyperscale and AI workloads, and can pivot to air-cooled traditional deployments in the same physical structure. No redesign, no additional capex. We design and build like this because we understand the long-term commitments our customers must make.”
Oliver Schiebel, CEO at HSCALE.
“Milan is one of the strongest hyperscale markets in Europe and we are committing around €2 billion to this region because we understand what the market needs and are serious about its growth potential. Our team closed the second site, secured the power and is already progressing through pre-construction, ensuring we deliver real capacity, as fast as possible.”
Paul Berry-Selwood, CCO at HSCALE.
Milan’s Rising Connectivity
Milan’s profile as a European connectivity hub continues to grow. Home to MIX (Milan Internet Exchange), Italy’s largest internet exchange point with over 420 connected networks, the city sits at a critical intersection of European and Mediterranean network routes. Milan’s emergence outside the traditional FLAP-D markets (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin) reflects a broader shift by hyperscalers toward energy-advantaged locations with strong connectivity and growing grid capacity.
Job Creation and Community Investment
The development is expected to create a significant number of jobs in the region during construction and operations, drawing on Milan’s deep talent pool across engineering, IT and data centre operations.
HSCALE is committed to being a responsible participant in the communities where it operates. The company is a key sponsor of the Festival di Villa Arconati, a nearly 40-year-old cultural institution in the Milan metropolitan area, as part of its broader community engagement program.
Energy and Sustainability
HSCALE’s energy strategy in Milan is designed around a diversified supply mix, with nearly 50% of power sourced from renewable generation including solar, wind and hydroelectric.
The company’s ambition is to increase the renewable share of its energy mix over time as grid capacity and generation in Northern Italy continue to expand.
HSCALE is underpinned by a structural partnership with Aquila Clean Energy, which provides integrated access to clean energy supplies rather than relying solely on standard power purchase agreements.
Substantial Investment and Scalability
HSCALE is backed by Bain Capital, one of the world’s leading private investment firms with approximately $225 billion of assets under management. The global platform invests across five focus areas: Private Equity, Growth & Venture, Capital Solutions, Credit & Capital Markets, and Real Assets. In these focus areas, Bain Capital brings deep sector expertise and wide-ranging capabilities.
