@wearedigitaldiplomacy: “Sentiment around Italy has become more positive,” rating firm Fitch said last week about the Italian economy and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s recovery agenda. Investors are largely positive too, and global tech powerhouse Microsoft has just announced a €4.3 billion — almost $5 billion — over the next two years to strengthen its artificial intelligence, generativeAI, and cloud infrastructure in northern Italy. Microsoft’s investment would be the US company’s largest in Italy to date. It will make the cloud region ItalyNorth one of the biggest Microsoft data centers in Europe, working as a data hub also for the Mediterranean and north Africa. In early October, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith met Prime Minister Meloni in Rome. Meloni’s office said the the investment would strengthen Italy’s digital role in the Mediterranean. Meloni also met US fund BlackRock chief Larry Fink, who travelled to Rome to discuss possible investments in data centres and to support energy infrastructure. Both Smith and Fink were keynote speakers at the G7 summit in Puglia — chaired by Meloni — this past summer. Earlier this year, Singapore-based semiconductor firm Silicon Box announced a €3.2 billion — about $3.50 billion — investment to build a new plant in northern Italy under a government-backed deal. In March, Italy set up an investment fund with an initial endowment of €1 billion euros — about $1.1 billion — to promote artificial intelligence and Gen AI projects. The fund could raise a further $2 billion from the private sector. And just last week, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo met with Meloni in Rome, on the sidelines of the G7 tech meetings. The two discussed ongoing efforts through the G7 to promote a more resilient global semiconductor ecosystem and to strengthen US-Italy commercial and investment ties. #giorgiameloni #digitaldiplomacy

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Sunday 13 October 2024 14:33:04 GMT