BRUSSELS — The growth of power-hungry artificial intelligence is redrawing the map of Europe’s data centers — and Ireland, the heart of the continent’s tech scene, may lose out.
When users stream a movie or check their email, they connect to data centers — the physical backbone of the digital world. These rows of server racks have become a pillar of the economy in Ireland, the European Union base for many tech companies.
According to a recent study by United States-based analyst Synergy Research Group, Dublin is the world’s third-largest hyperscale data center hub — and the top site in Europe. Hyperscalers are large cloud providers such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google that operate massive networks made up of thousands of data servers.
But AI’s voracious appetite for electricity — which could double by 2026 — may force Ireland to surrender its cloud crown, as the country’s power grids struggle to keep up with demand.
