A €50 billion investment: Croatia to build an AI data center to the most advanced standards

Croatia is set to see a groundbreaking project on an unprecedented scale. It will involve the construction of an AI data center and innovation campus with strategic importance for the whole of Europe. 

Behind the newly announced project at the European summit is private investment firm Pantheon Atlas LLC. The plan is not limited to the AI data center itself: an innovation campus will also be built in the Topusko region, 45 minutes from Zagreb.

The project investment is estimated at around 50 billion EUR, making it the largest investment ever in Croatia and one of the largest private investments of U.S. capital. The construction itself will cost 12 billion EUR, with the remainder going toward installed technologies that will meet the most advanced NVIDIA GW Scale AI Factory standards. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2027, with full commissioning expected in the first quarter of 2029.  

"Pantheon AI is a signal to the world that Croatia is open to investment at the highest level," said Jako Andabak, founding partner of PantheonAI. "This project is the culmination of years of work to build world-class digital infrastructure that will meet demand for data centers and their capacity."

Technical specifications and other parameters

The Pantheon AI project is a data center with a total capacity of 1 GW, of which 800 MW will be available for IT operations. The center is also designed to NVIDIA standards. The project will be built on a site of approximately 1.25 km², with the option to expand to around 1.82 km². The data infrastructure will be connected via four independent fiber-optic routes linked to key European transmission corridors; the GreenMed cable is expected to provide connectivity as far as Milan.

The project also includes a robust power supply system with four independent 400 kV lines, enabling up to 5.2 GW of new renewable energy to be integrated into the Croatian power grid. Once completed, the project is expected to create approximately 1,500 permanent jobs, while employing up to 3,000 workers during construction.

Integrating renewable energy into the project

The energy concept for the Pantheon AI project is based entirely on renewable energy sources, which are intended to ensure the planned campus is fully energy self-sufficient. A key component will be a 500 MW solar power plant, complemented by a battery storage system with a power output of 2,000 MW and a capacity of 8,000 MWh, enabling supply to be stabilized even when the data center’s demands are high. Greenvolt International Power is expected to help deliver this infrastructure, preparing to build solar and storage systems directly on the site. 

Challenges facing European data centers

European data centers are facing a critical shortage of available capacity: vacancy rates in major hubs have fallen below eight percent, while significant delays in connecting new projects to the power grid are making the situation worse. In Central and Eastern Europe, where data center electricity consumption is estimated to rise as much as fourfold by 2035, facilities on a gigawatt scale optimized for artificial intelligence are still lacking. At the same time, European data sovereignty rules require major technology companies to store and process European users’ data within the European Union.