Microsoft announces its plans to make a huge investment in Greece.
Amounting to €1 billion ($1.17 billion), the investment that is part of “GR for GRowth” digital transformation initiative, is for building three data center sites in greater Athens, the capital and largest city in Greece.
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Microsoft's President/Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith said that the new hub would deliver access to low-latency, enterprise-grade cloud services, beneficial to business, consumers and banks in Greece and its neighboring countries.
The size of the investment was not actually disclosed. But government spokesman Stelios Petsas said that it would involve new infrastructure at a cost of €500 million and annual spending of €50 million in the coming years.
"There will be benefits for Greece given our commitment to training for thousands of people," said Smith.
He later tweeted that the investment will be Microsoft's biggest in Greece in its 28 years of operating in the country.
"This reflects our optimism in Greece's future and economic recovery," he said.
According to Brad Smith at a ceremony held in the Acropolis Museum, facing the ancient site in central Athens.
"It's not something we do often and it's not something that we do lightly."
The deal “shows confidence in the Greek economy, the Greek people and the government.”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis added that the data centers will “automatically upgrade the country as an investment destination."
The country's economy has been hit hard by the pandemic, shrinking around 8%, and with unemployment the highest in Europe at 17-20%. It is still recovering from a lengthy debt crisis that made its economy to drop by a quarter over a decade, with unemployment then at 30%.
“Greece will become a world hub for cloud,” Mitsotakis said, adding that the data centers would bring long-term financial benefits to Greece.
"The creation of a data centers upgrades a country as an investment destination [...] Greece has the sun and now it’s getting a cloud.”
The 'COVID-19' coronavirus pandemic has exposed Greece's heavy reliance on tourism.
And this Microsoft investment in the country, is a boon to Greece's economy that is weakened by a decade-long debt crisis and the pandemic.
The Mitsotakis government said that it wants to shift the balance of the Greek economy during its recovery, developing the energy, tech, and defense sectors, hoping to lure back tens of thousands of graduates who left during the crisis.
“We are starting to create the conditions for their return,” Mitsotakis said.
Greece officials said that they would comply with Microsoft's pledge to run all its data centers on renewable energy sources by 2025.
The investment was negotiated over the course of nine months, amid the global coronavirus pandemic. It also includes a promise to provide digital-skills training to around 100,000 government officials, private sector employees, as well as educators and students.
The announcement follows earlier moves by Microsoft this 2020, which the company cooperated with the Greek government on creating augmented reality (AR) applications for the Ancient Olympia’s archaeological site.
The website and app were developed free of charge for Greece, as part of Microsoft’s 'AI for Good' Corporate Social Responsibility program. The success of that project had contributed to Microsoft’s decision to invest in Greece.
Additionally in May, Microsoft announced that the company is planning to create a Robotic Process Automation development hub in the Athens, a move that spokesman Charles Lamanna described as “a big step forward for Microsoft.”
At this time, Microsoft has data centers in 26 countries, including seven in the European Union.
Before this project in Greece finishes, the only Microsoft Azure cloud region in southern Europe is in Marseille, a city located in the southern of France.
