Schneider Electric has helped deliver the first stage of the Start Campus data center development in Portugal.

The power technology firm has partnered with Start Campus to open the first data center on the site, the 26MW SIN01 facility, which came online in December.

Located on repurposed industrial land in Sines, Portugal, Start Campus could eventually become Europe’s biggest data center campus, with 1.2GW of power secured by the developer.

The campus has utilized a range of Schneider Electric products, including the company’s EcoStruxure for Data Centers portfolio and sustainability services. The firms said this will help “set new benchmarks for resilient and sustainable workloads for AI, cloud and GPU-accelerated computing clusters.”

“Start Campus’ vision for creating one of Europe’s largest AI data center hubs has been unprecedented, and we’re honoured to have partnered with them, bringing our expertise from across the data center, buildings, energy and industrial sectors to help establish these new foundations at SIN01,” said Pablo Ruiz Escribano, senior vice president for secure power and data center business at Schneider Electric Europe.

“This new digital gateway will not only encourage more investment and innovation into the region but ensures hyperscale and cloud providers can leverage world-leading data center capacity to power their AI infrastructure.”

SIN01 is part of Start Campus’ planned six-building campus. In August last year, it secured power to bring the total potential IT capacity of the campus to 1.2GW.

The campus will use Nautilus’ cooling technology, which can leverage surrounding seawater for a more environmentally friendly cooling solution.

Start Campus faced several challenges when it was involved in a corruption scandal that brought down the Portuguese government and saw multiple Start Campus executives arrested amid investigations of alleged “misuse of funds, active and passive corruption by political figures, and influence peddling.”

Since then, the charges against former CEO Afonso Salema have been dropped. Robert Dunn is now the permanent CEO at Start Campus, having served as the interim CEO since November 2023.

Dunn said: “At Start Campus, we are committed to building the foundation for the next generation of sustainable, AI-ready digital infrastructure. Power is one of the most critical resources in today’s digital infrastructure. But it’s not just about access – it’s about managing power efficiently, intelligently, and sustainably at scale.”