Artificial intelligence is reshaping the geography of digital infrastructure. According to McKinsey, between €240 billion and €289 billion in investment will be required by 2030 to meet growing demand for data center capacity in Europe, with installed capacity expected to increase from approximately 10 GW today to 35 GW within the next five years.

As demand for computing power accelerates worldwide, access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy is becoming a decisive factor in determining where AI-ready infrastructure and data centers will be deployed. Recognizing this trend, Portugal has made the attraction of data centers and digital infrastructure a strategic national priority, with recent government initiatives aiming to position the country as a leading European hub for digital infrastructure and data processing, what some have described as a new epicenter for AI infrastructure.

Beyond its strategic geographic position and international connectivity, the country benefits from a diversified and increasingly renewable energy mix, combining hydropower, wind, solar and biomass resources. This combination offers both sustainability and resilience, two attributes that are becoming increasingly valuable as AI-driven workloads place growing demands on energy systems. Energy is no longer simply an operational input for digital infrastructure; it has become a determining factor in the viability, competitiveness, and sustainability of AI-ready data center projects.

Yet this opportunity raises a fundamental question: how can Portugal transform its energy advantage into a sustained, long-term competitive advantage in the AI era?

Looking ahead to 2030, important scientific, technological and infrastructure challenges remain to be addressed. How can energy systems accommodate increasingly dynamic AI workloads? How should power grids evolve to support large-scale computing infrastructure? How can advanced computing become more energy efficient? What innovations are needed in data center hardware architectures, energy storage, generation adequacy, grid management, grid stability impacts and solutions, power quality, and sustainable computing to ensure that digital growth remains compatible with energy security and decarbonisation goals?

This session will explore the research and innovation agenda needed to build Portugal's energy backbone for its digital future and for Europe's. Bringing together perspectives from academia and industry, the discussion will examine how international research partnerships can help address these challenges.

Particular attention will be given to the role of the UT Austin Portugal Program and the opportunities created by collaboration between Portuguese institutions and UT Austin. As one of the world's most dynamic environments for AI-driven growth, Texas offers a unique real-world laboratory where the expansion of advanced computing, data centers, and energy infrastructure is taking place at unprecedented scale. The experience of organizations such as the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) provides valuable insights into the growing interdependence between computing capacity, energy availability and infrastructure planning.

By connecting Portugal's emerging ambitions with lessons from Texas, the session will explore how collaborative transatlantic research can help develop new solutions in areas such as sustainable computing, grid resilience, and next-generation energy storage systems.

Ultimately, the discussion will consider how research, innovation, and international collaboration can help Portugal move beyond hosting data centers to becoming a global reference in the technologies and knowledge required to power the AI economy.