The agreement between PPC and a U.S. technology giant to build a mega data center in Kozani appears to be in its final stages, an investment that could attract massive capital from across the Atlantic and eventually exceed 10 billion euros.
Following yesterday’s start of trading on the 228 million new shares, all signs point to the company’s management revving up for the project that is the crown jewel of its new investment plan, with reports indicating that the final agreement with the American hyperscaler could be finalized in three months at best, or at the latest within the next six months.
Just how far along the process is can be seen both from the fact that the company has long since moved forward with the initial stages—namely, design and permitting—having even announced that construction will begin in 2026, commissioning in 2027, and the project will be ready to go online in 2028, as well as from the information regarding the scope of the investment.
According to this information, and of course assuming the agreement with the American partner is signed, the project will be rolled out in phases, with the first phase involving a 300 MW mega data center in the former lignite mining areas of Kozani, for which the construction and energy infrastructure alone is estimated at 2.4 billion euros. Of this amount, PPC’s share will amount to €1.2 billion, as announced.
The remaining 50% of the construction costs will likely be covered by the American partner, who appears to be negotiating a long-term lease agreement for the infrastructure with the company. Provided the agreement is signed, the hyperscaler will be supplied with low-cost energy from the adjacent PPC solar farms through a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
How we reach €7 billion
The big numbers start from here on out. Any agreement with one of the two American tech giants with whom management announced on April 23, during the presentation of its new plan, that it is in advanced discussions—they are among the“big 5,”namely Meta, Amazon, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle—means that it will take on the investment in technological equipment.
The rule of thumb for this type of data center investment is that servers, AI GPU clusters, storage systems, and ultra-high-speed networks for cloud and AI applications are worth twice the cost of construction. In the case of this specific project, the digital infrastructure is estimated at 4.8 billion euros.
In total, therefore, if this joint Greek-American investment in Kozani comes to fruition, we will be talking about a colossal sum in the range of over 7 billion euros. Depending on the agreement, U.S. capital could account for as much as 80% of the total.
Although the numbers sound staggering, it should not be overlooked that the giants with whom PPC has held talks from time to time—and continues to do so—make investments of $100–200 billion a year. This category includes the “Big 5”—namely Meta, Amazon, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle—which also includes the two players with whom PPC is in advanced talks.
Perhaps this explains why, although the discussions initially concern a 300 MW project, these two American hyperscalers are said to have conveyed to the Greek side that they are even interested in two Giga Data Centers in the former lignite fields of Kozani.
Each with a capacity of 1 GW—levels considered among the largest in Europe (the largest currently under construction is in Portugal and has a capacity of 1.2 GW)—a fact that translates to even more staggering figures.
Even at… 20 billion, the digital infrastructure
In a scenario where the investment is decided to reach 1 GW, this will happen gradually and step-by-step, over a 6- to 10-year horizon, and the figures, as calculations show, reach astronomical levels by Greek standards.
Estimates for such a colossal project put the construction costs alone at 8 billion euros, an amount that will obviously be split between the two partners according to the agreement. And on top of these figures, several additional billion euros must be added, which in the case of a massive 1 GW AI Giga Factory could exceed 20 billion euros, as experts explain…
In the case of the largest data center currently being built in Europe, “Sines 4.0” in Portugal, construction costs amount to 3.5–4.2 billion euros, and Microsoft’s investment in the digital infrastructure is estimated at an additional 10 billion dollars.
The above should not be viewed in isolation from the fact that key European hubs for data centers—from London and Dublin to Frankfurt and Paris—are showing signs of saturation, resulting in more and more American hyperscalers looking to Southeast Europe, as a recent PWC study on the siting of such investments in Greece and available electrical capacity had shown.
Those familiar with the process estimate that, if all goes well, the PPC agreement with its counterpart could be finalized as early as July, referring to one of the largest AI Giga Factories in Europe with a phased implementation timeline. And a sign of the advanced discussions, as it is said, is the fact that some of the interested parties are reported to have requested to conduct due diligence on the Kozani project, for which the initial site selection places it at the Agios Dimitrios Power Plant.
Preliminary work is underway
It should be noted that the company has already completed the preliminary work for the investment, which will remain 100% in its ownership, by entering into a long-term lease agreement with the American hyperscaler with whom it will reach an agreement.
The construction component falls under the category of modular data centers, a prefabricated IT infrastructure solution with cooling that adapts to specific needs, offering rapid installation and scalability.
Data centers and the expansion of PPC into Central Europe are the two main pillars of the “story” that attracted foreign capital and the primary reason why foreign investors lined up during last week’s capital increase, foreign capital—the overwhelming majority of which—totaling over 18 billion euros.
PPC was also the bellwether of yesterday’s session on the Stock Exchange. On the first day of trading for the new shares, it closed with a market capitalization of 12.8 billion (7 billion euros before the offering), with the stock at 21.48 euros (+1.32%), while the number of shares traded was again unusually high, reaching 5.3 million.
