A British-US company announced Friday that it would invest up to 3.5 billion euros to build a massive data centre in Portugal by 2025 in response to demand for trans-Atlantic connections.

The company—”start campus”—has chosen a site in the port of Sines, southwestern Portugal, near a decommissioned coal power plant, and will “have a net zero carbon footprint”, a statement said.

Start campus is a joint venture of US investment firm Davidson Kempner Capital Management and Pioneer Point Partners of Britain.

“Sines 4.0”, as the project has been dubbed, “will be one of the largest data centre campus projects in Europe and will address the exploding demand of large international technology companies,” the statement said.

The firms’ previous projects include a similar but smaller data centre in Ireland and a biomethane energy plant in Denmark.

Sines 4.0 is to use existing infrastructure such as power lines and cooling systems that use readily available sea water.

The location also provides access to trans-Atlantic fibre-optic cables and would “contribute to Portugal’s revival as a key player in the international data and connectivity scene,” the statement said.

The campus is to consist of five buildings that house data servers with total power consumption of 450 megawatts, to be provided by renewable sources, the company said.

The project is expected to create up to 1,200 highly-qualified jobs.

“Data has been identified as the new ‘oil’ of the digital economy, and Portugal will benefit from this large investment in Sines that will place the country at the core of transatlantic and global data network,” said Sam Abboud of Pioneer Point Partners.

tsc/wai/lth