Construction machines have begun operations to build what will be Southeast Europe’s largest data centre upon full completion at 273,000 sq ft.

The facility, located in Mischii, Craiova, in Romania’s Dolj County, is being developed by ClusterPower, a company founded in 2019 by Romanian entrepreneurs Cosmin Georgescu, Vladimir Ester and Carmen Ursa Georgescu.

The initial investment stands at RON 172 million (US$41.3 million), of which RON 82 million ($19.7 million) comes from a state grant extended last year by the Ministry of Finance. The rest is financed by ClusterPower’s own cash resources and other sources of financing.

The first phase is set for completion by December 2021, with teams involved in the project coming from Romania, the USA, Germany, UK, Austria, the Czech Republic.

The 1.1 PUE site will connect to other 750 data centres globally via fibre links, developers have said.

General Security is the general contractor for the construction works whilst the general contractor for the IT equipment and the utility infrastructure is Bit Invest.

ClusterPower said it has also signed partnerships with global vendors such as NVidia, HP, NetApp, Cisco Systems, F5, Palo Alto Networks, Exagrid, Schneider Electric, Vertiv, and York.

Cosmin Georgescu, founder and CEO of ClusterPower, said: “We are pleased to announce that we have broken ground on this project, which will provide our customers and partners with wide-ranging infrastructure that can help accelerate the digitalisation of the economy and increase competitiveness in research, education and industries.

“We have with us some of the most prestigious and experienced engineers and equipment suppliers in the world, which strengthens our conviction that our investment will be a reference point in Romania’s development.

“We are just beginning, but when the first phases of construction are completed, ClusterPower will become the largest provider of Cloud and Compute in Eastern Europe.”

At full build, the site will include 4,500 racks and 200 MW of IT power source from natural gas provided by Rolls Royce – MTU, General Electric, Hitachi ABB.