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The company said it would create its first datacentre region in the country to rival Amazon and Google
The Italian cloud market is set to grow rapidly in the near future, with companies increasingly relying on digital technology for the daily operations.
The market’s potential has not gone unnoticed by the American tech giants this year, with Google grabbing a partnership with Telecom Italia back in March to combine their cloud offerings and Amazon Web Services opening a datacentre region in Milan last week.
Now, not to be outdone, Microsoft has done the same, pledging to invest $1.5 billion in a new Milan-based datacentre region.
The company also announced a five-year plan to provide local small and medium enterprises with cloud and AI services.
This investment follows Microsoft’s renewed interest in Europe in 2020. In February, the company pledged $1 billion for its Polish business. Later that month, Microsoft also announced a partnership with Telefonica, planning a new cloud region in Spain.
Microsoft currently has 61 datacentre regions around the world, with executives saying they expect to increase cloud infrastructure spending significantly in the following quarter.
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