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Croatia has been thrust into Europe’s artificial intelligence infrastructure race after Pantheon Atlas LLC outlined plans for a €50 billion data centre and innovation campus in Topusko, a small town in Sisak-Moslavina County that could become one of the continent’s most ambitious compute hubs.
The proposed Pantheon AI campus is designed around 1 gigawatt of total power capacity, including about 800 megawatts of usable information technology load for AI computing and cloud services. Construction is targeted for early 2027, with full operations envisaged by the first quarter of 2029, though the timetable depends on permitting, grid upgrades and tenant commitments.
The scale is striking for Croatia, whose economy is far smaller than the investment value attached to the project. Pantheon Atlas has presented the plan as the largest private investment in the country’s history and one of the biggest US-backed digital infrastructure bets in Europe. The announcement was made in Dubrovnik during the Three Seas Initiative gathering, where energy security, digital infrastructure and US engagement in central and south-eastern Europe dominated discussions.
Topusko, about 45 minutes from Zagreb, is an unusual setting for a project pitched at global hyperscale clients. The campus is expected to cover about 310 acres, with scope to expand to 450 acres. Its developers argue that the location offers land, access to a workforce from nearby urban centres, room for dedicated power infrastructure and a position inside both the European Union and NATO, a factor that matters as data sovereignty and geopolitical resilience shape technology investment decisions.
Energy is central to the plan. The project includes a behind-the-meter 500-megawatt solar plant and an 8,000 megawatt-hour battery storage system intended to supply the campus with renewable electricity. Pantheon Atlas has also said the associated transmission infrastructure, including four independent 400kV lines, could enable up to 5.2 gigawatts of renewable energy integration into Croatia’s national grid.
That promise gives the project wider significance than a conventional data centre development. AI facilities require dense power supply, sophisticated cooling, fibre connectivity and long-term energy contracts. Across Europe, established hubs such as Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin are constrained by power availability, land shortages and planning pressure. Vacancy levels in major data centre markets have tightened sharply as hyperscale operators and AI firms compete for ready capacity.
Croatia’s pitch rests on the argument that newer markets can leapfrog older hubs if they can deliver grid connections, renewable supply and permitting certainty. Končar Group is supporting substation development, Dalekovod Projekt is leading transmission design, and Ravel Ltd is involved in substation engineering. Parsec Lab, based in Zagreb, is working on data centre design and engineering, while advisers including Eastdil Secured, PwC, KPMG, Latham & Watkins and Hodgson Russ have been named around the project.
The plan also links Croatia to a broader reordering of European AI infrastructure. As major technology companies move more workloads into AI training and inference, demand has shifted from traditional cloud centres to specialised campuses that can handle high-density GPU clusters. Facilities now compete not only on latency and location but on power, cooling, resilience and regulatory trust.
Pantheon AI has been framed as being built to accommodate NVIDIA GW-scale AI factory standards, a signal aimed at hyperscale tenants seeking advanced compute environments. Its developers have also pointed to four independent fibre routes across three EU corridors and the expected extension of the GreenMed subsea cable towards Milan by 2028 as part of the connectivity case.
Croatian authorities have an incentive to support such a project. Sisak-Moslavina County, still associated with economic underdevelopment and post-earthquake recovery needs, could gain construction activity, permanent technology employment and supporting infrastructure. Pantheon Atlas has projected about 3,000 construction roles and 1,500 permanent jobs once completed.
The risks are equally substantial. A €50 billion figure includes tenant equipment and technology deployment, not merely construction spending. The campus itself has been described as a €12 billion build, with the larger total depending on hyperscale clients committing capital at scale. Grid works of this size are complex, permitting can stretch timelines, and renewable generation backed by batteries will need to match the reliability standards expected by AI customers operating around the clock.
Local acceptance will also matter. Large data centres can bring jobs and infrastructure but raise questions over land use, water demand, noise, electricity allocation and whether benefits flow mainly to foreign investors and global technology groups. The project’s claim of renewable self-supply may reduce pressure on Croatia’s grid, but the integration of several gigawatts of renewable capacity will still require careful coordination with national energy planning.
