Microsoft, on Wednesday, announced a €4.3B initiative in the next two years to expand its hyper-scale cloud and AI data center infrastructure in Italy.
This recent move from the Redmond tech giant marks the largest-ever investment in the country.
The company aims to provide digital skills training to over 1 million Italians by the end of 2025.
How does this initiative benefit Italy?
This move aims to help Italy maximise the opportunities of artificial intelligence and to contribute to the focus of the Italian government on long-term economic growth and demographic challenge.
By integrating AI into strategic sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, finance, and public administration Italy can innovate production processes, improve patient outcomes, enhance financial services, and increase the efficiency of public services.
According to the Redmond tech giant, AI adoption can help address demographic challenges and enhance Italy’s global competitiveness, supporting the government’s vision for a resilient, innovative, and inclusive economy.
With this investment, Italy North will become one of Microsoft’s largest data centre regions on the continent and will play a crucial role in meeting European data boundary requirements.
It will also serve as a key data hub for the Mediterranean and North Africa, supporting the Global Partnership on Investment and Infrastructure and meeting the government ambition under the G7 Presidency to foster collaboration with the Global South.
This infrastructure will operate under Microsoft’s AI Access Principles, which were created to foster innovation and healthy competition within the rapidly growing AI economy.
Upskilling more than 1M Italians
As a part of the investments, Microsoft and its partners will introduce new training programs to skill more than 1 million people in Italy by 2025, focused on AI fluency, technical AI skills, AI business transformation, and the promotion of safe and responsible AI development.
Through its collaboration with a large network of Microsoft-certified training services partners, industry partners, universities, nonprofit organisations, government institutions, and associations, the company will launch skilling initiatives for professionals and students across Italy, including in disadvantaged communities.
The nonprofit ELIS’s Include to Grow initiative aims to help marginalised individuals enter the workforce, especially women unable to find jobs after maternity leave.
Ital.IA LAB, led by the nonprofit Fondazione Mondo Digitale, focuses on creating learning hubs for Generative AI and educating young people, job seekers, and workers, with a focus on women and disadvantaged areas, particularly in the South of Italy.
“In less than a year, our Cloud Region has supported Italian and international companies to achieve greater productivity and innovation,” says Vincenzo Esposito, General Manager of Microsoft Italy.
“This new investment confirms our commitment to the sustainable growth of Italy by helping organisations harness the power of Cloud and Generative AI while providing Italians with the skills to maximise these technologies. Our Italy North Region will continue in accelerating digital transformation and skills in Italy, ensuring that no one is left behind,” adds Esposito.
Accelerating AI adoption in Italy
Microsoft Italy has created the AI LAB program to help companies learn about AI opportunities for growth.
As per the company’s claims, over 320 companies have joined the initiative in the past year, creating more than 450 Generative AI projects, with 50 per cent already operational.
A network of 30 local partners supports all to enhance innovation, creativity, and productivity.
According to a recent study from THEA Group and Microsoft Italy, Italian companies are experiencing tangible productivity gains thanks to Generative AI.
Today, 47 per cent of companies using AI solutions report productivity increases of more than 5 per cent, while 74 per cent have experienced productivity gains of more than 1 per cent.
Angelo Saccà, Director of the Information Systems, Portal, E-Learning Department of the University of Turin, says, “Thanks to the strategic collaboration with Microsoft and the use of the latest solutions, we have strengthened trust and drive to innovation, both for a general transformation and digital transformation in particular within our academic community.”
“Microsoft’s significant investment in Italy underscores the importance of our domestic market and reinforces our shared vision for a secure digital future. Our commitment to security and reliability is at the core of everything we offer: the strategic partnership with Microsoft empowers us to continue delivering cutting-edge solutions, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the backbone of the Italian economy,” says Danilo Cattaneo, CEO Infocert.
“By integrating the latest advancements in artificial intelligence, we provide innovative services that meet the evolving needs of the market, combining the trust and innovation of our offerings with the reliability of Microsoft’s infrastructure,” adds Cattaneo.
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