Over €8M AI Data Center Investment Fuels Romania's Data Hub Status

Romanian IT company Expert IT has announced that it will invest over 8 million euros (approximately 286 million New Taiwan Dollars) within this year to construct an artificial intelligence data center, with the first-phase investment comprising part of a 2.8-million-euro outlay. Scheduled to become operational before the end of the year, the data center is set to become one of Romania's crucial infrastructures in the field of artificial intelligence. The core objective of the project is to provide a high-speed, stable computing environment for AI model development and to attract domestic and international enterprises to establish a presence, jointly driving the growth of the local AI industry.

Romania has been actively promoting the "Digital Romania" initiative since 2019, striving to transform the country into a prominent data center hub in Europe. Low electricity prices, a stable power supply, and relatively low labor costs have made Romania a popular choice for data center investments within the European Union. In recent years, the country has also received support from the European Commission's digital infrastructure funds, further lowering construction costs. Expert IT's investment aligns with this policy trend, positioning the AI data center as a key step in enhancing national competitiveness.

The training and inference processes of AI models require massive computational resources, placing extremely high demands on power supply and cooling systems. According to the project organizers, the training process of a single large-scale model can consume hundreds of kilowatt-hours of electrical energy, and unstable power supply would directly impact the progress and quality of model training. To address this, Expert IT has negotiated with local power companies and plans to install backup generators and high-efficiency cooling systems at the data center, while also exploring the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power to reduce its carbon footprint. The implementation of these technologies and strategies will provide the data center with a more reliable and environmentally friendly operating model.

From economic and geopolitical perspectives, the construction of the AI data center will drive local employment, enhance the cultivation of technical talent, and attract more multinational corporations to set up operations. As a gathering point for high-tech industries, the data center will foster the development of related supply chains, such as hardware manufacturing, software development, and system integration. More importantly, the project will enable Romania to occupy a more influential position within the EU's AI policy framework, securing a larger share for the country in the artificial intelligence race. This move may also trigger competition in data center investments among neighboring countries, further elevating the level of technological development across the entire Eastern European region.

Following the completion of the data center, Expert IT plans to cooperate with major European AI research and development institutions to conduct model development and testing. The company expects to reduce the operating costs of the AI data center to approximately 2 million euros annually within the next three years, and to provide scalable AI computing resources to small and medium-sized enterprises through leasing services. If the project progresses smoothly, Romania will become one of the key hubs of Europe's AI industry, holding profound significance for the long-term development of the nation's digital transformation and innovation economy.