Rome, 2 October, 2024 – In its largest funding in Italy to this point, Microsoft immediately introduced a €4.3 billion initiative within the subsequent two years to broaden its hyperscale cloud and AI datacenter infrastructure and supply digital expertise coaching to greater than 1 million Italians by the tip of 2025.
This transfer goals to assist Italy maximize the alternatives of synthetic intelligence (AI) and to contribute to the main focus of the Italian authorities on long-term financial development and demographic problem. Microsoft’s knowledge heart enlargement in Northern Italy coupled with its dedication to supply in depth AI expertise coaching helps the rising demand for AI compute and cloud providers throughout Italy as organizations look to spice up productiveness and uncover new breakthroughs with AI. By integrating AI into strategic sectors corresponding to manufacturing, healthcare, finance, and public administration Italy can innovate manufacturing processes, enhance affected person outcomes, improve monetary providers, improve the effectivity of public providers. Furthermore, incorporating AI into native small and medium-sized organizations can allow the nation to unlock new ranges of innovation and entrepreneurship.
The adoption of AI additionally has the potential to handle demographic challenges and enhance Italy’s competitiveness on a world scale, supporting the Italian authorities’s imaginative and prescient for a resilient, progressive, and inclusive financial system. Safety is on the core of this funding and our operations, making certain that our expertise and providers are designed to guard and keep belief, and to serve the nation’s cybersecurity posture.
With this funding, Italy North will grow to be one among Microsoft’s largest datacenter areas on the continent and can play an important function in assembly European knowledge boundary necessities. It’s going to additionally function a key knowledge hub for the Mediterranean and North Africa, supporting the International Partnership on Funding and Infrastructure and assembly the federal government ambition beneath the G7 Presidency to foster collaboration with the International South.
“This landmark funding underscores our long-standing dedication to Italy’s digital transformation,” mentioned Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft. “By increasing entry to our AI expertise and experience, we’re equipping the Italian authorities, companies, and the broader workforce with the instruments to construct an AI-driven financial system that creates jobs and drives prosperity.”
This infrastructure will function beneath Microsoft’s AI Entry Rules which have been created to foster innovation and wholesome competitors inside the quickly rising AI financial system. They mirror Microsoft’s increasing function and duty as a pacesetter in AI and commit the corporate to creating investments, forging enterprise partnerships, and creating applications that guarantee broad entry to its AI expertise that empower organizations and people to develop and use AI in methods that may serve the general public good.
Upskilling greater than 1 million Italians by means of an AI Nationwide Skilling Initiative
In Italy, Generative AI holds the potential to reinforce productiveness and well-being, even within the face of a expertise scarcity and an growing old inhabitants. Italy may lose about 3.7 million employees by 2040, the variety of individuals projected to depart the workforce, leading to €267.8 billion in nationwide GDP at current productiveness degree. New applied sciences will make it attainable to take care of the identical degree of financial well-being. Accordingly to a current examine by TEHA Group and Microsoft Italy* reveals that 63 p.c of Italian entrepreneurs acknowledge a scarcity of Generative AI expertise. Nevertheless, broad adoption of this expertise might enhance Italy’s annual GDP by as much as €312 billion over the following 15 years, an 18.2 p.c improve and one among strategic sector of the Italian Financial system – the SMEs and Made in Italy corporations – may benefit from a rise of €122 billion in added worth.
Microsoft and its companions will introduce new coaching applications to ability greater than 1 million individuals in Italy by 2025, targeted on AI fluency, technical AI expertise, AI enterprise transformation, and the promotion of secure and accountable AI improvement. By means of our collaboration with a big community of Microsoft licensed coaching providers companions, trade companions, universities, nonprofit organizations, authorities establishments, and associations, we’ll launch skilling initiatives for professionals and college students throughout Italy, included in deprived communities.
As a part of the Nationwide Skilling Initiative, the nonprofit ELIS’s Embrace to Develop initiative goals to cut back academic poverty and assist marginalized people enter the workforce. This program focuses on ladies who’ve been unable to seek out jobs after maternity go away. One other initiative, Ital.IA LAB, led by the nonprofit Fondazione Mondo Digitale, focuses on making a nationwide infrastructure of studying hubs for Generative AI and establishing a community of trainers to coach younger individuals, job seekers, and employees, particularly ladies and people in deprived areas, and within the South of Italy.
“In lower than a yr, our Cloud Area has help Italian and worldwide corporations obtain higher productiveness and innovation,” mentioned Vincenzo Esposito, Basic Supervisor Microsoft Italy. “This new funding confirms our dedication for the sustainable development of Italy by serving to organizations harness the ability of Cloud and Generative AI whereas offering Italians with the abilities to maximise these applied sciences. Our Italy North Area will proceed in accelerating digital transformation and expertise in Italy, making certain that nobody is left behind”.
Growth of infrastructure in Italy to speed up AI adoption to assist organizations innovate securely and improve productiveness
To assist corporations studying the alternatives of AI for his or her development, Microsoft Italy has created the AI L.A.B. program. Over 320 corporations have joined the initiative prior to now yr, creating extra 450 Generative AI initiatives, with 50% already operational, all supported by a community of 30 native companions to reinforce innovation, creativity, and productiveness.
In keeping with a current examine from THEA Group and Microsoft Italy*, Italian corporations are experiencing tangible productiveness beneficial properties because of Generative AI. At the moment 47 p.c of corporations utilizing AI options report productiveness will increase of greater than 5 p.c, whereas 74 p.c have skilled productiveness beneficial properties of greater than 1 p.c. These beneficial properties are notably vital, contemplating the general productiveness development that Italy has recorded over the past 20 years (+1.6 p.c).
Microsoft’s superior computational infrastructure and AI platform providers can allow organizations from small medium companies and start-ups to giant establishments to develop, deploy, and use proprietary and open supply AI fashions and purposes. It’s going to make Microsoft’s personal AI-infused providers like Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Dynamics extra broadly and regionally accessible to Italian prospects utilizing the brand new infrastructure to extend ranges of innovation and productiveness, Microsoft may even proceed providing cloud providers to the Italian Public Administration by means of the Nationwide Strategic Hub (PSN), utilizing Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty. This answer meets nationwide knowledge classification requirements with public cloud options, controls, and coverage governance.
A broad set of Italian group, corporations and start-ups are leveraging superior Cloud Providers and exploring AI capabilities and can profit from this new funding.
Angelo Saccà, Director of the Data Methods, Portal, E-Studying Division of the College of Turin: “Because of the strategic collaboration with Microsoft and using the most recent options, now we have strengthened belief and drive to innovation, each for a basic transformations and digital transformation particularly inside our tutorial group”.
As the most important Certified Belief Service Supplier (QTSP) in Europe, InfoCert (Tinexta Group) is unwavering in its mission to carry belief to digital transactions. “Microsoft’s vital funding in Italy underscores the significance of our home market and reinforces our shared imaginative and prescient for a safe digital future. Our dedication to safety and reliability is on the core of every little thing we provide: the strategic partnership with Microsoft empowers us to proceed delivering cutting-edge options, notably for small and medium-sized enterprises, that are the spine of the Italian financial system” mentioned, Danilo Cattaneo CEO Infocert. “By integrating the most recent developments in synthetic intelligence, we offer progressive providers that meet the evolving wants of the market, combining the belief and innovation of our choices with the reliability of Microsoft’s infrastructure”.
Advancing AI responsibly and sustainably
Microsoft’s method to accountable AI is grounded in six core ideas – equity, reliability and security, privateness and safety, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability. They mirror Microsoft’s increasing function and duty as a pacesetter in AI and commit the corporate to creating investments, forging enterprise partnerships, and creating applications that guarantee broad entry to its AI expertise that empower organizations and people to develop and use AI in methods that may serve the general public good. Microsoft can be among the many first to signal the Rome Name for AI Ethics, which inspires a principled method to synthetic intelligence and is endorsed by faiths of the Japanese world and Abrahamic religions.
Microsoft will proceed to advance the reliability, security, privateness, and safety of AI by designing and constructing infrastructure and cloud providers to assist safe datacenters in opposition to unauthorized entry, environmental hazards, and different bodily threats. To advance reliability, Microsoft’s current cloud area in Italy is related to the most important, trusted world cloud infrastructure, supporting the best service availability and serving to prospects construct for enterprise continuity with confidence. The area is supplied with Availability Zones, consisting of three distinctive bodily places, every with impartial energy, cooling and networks. Microsoft Azure gives a variety of resiliency options for prime availability, enterprise continuity plans, and catastrophe restoration steps to maintain providers out there and to fulfill excessive safety and privateness requirements.
In 2024, Microsoft launched the Datacenter Neighborhood Pledge to construct and function digital infrastructure that addresses societal challenges and creates advantages for communities, partnering intently with native governments, residents, and stakeholders to make sure its infrastructure is a useful resource that contributes to a sustainable future and advances group prosperity and well-being. In Italy, Microsoft has joined the Forestami initiative for the reforestation of some territories of Milan’s metropolitan space, and not too long ago launched two Lombardia Neighborhood Challenges opened to native non-profit initiatives in Milan and Pavia.
Microsoft can be deeply invested in advancing the sustainability of AI, and is addressing the assets wanted to help accountable development of AI infrastructure. Microsoft has taken a first-mover method to planning, making long-term investments to carry extra carbon-free electrical energy onto the grids the place they function, Energy Buy Agreements (PPAs) are on the heart this method. At the moment, Microsoft has contracted over 34 GW of renewable vitality throughout 24 nations, marking progress towards accelerating renewable vitality markets and supporting the worldwide vitality transition.
In Italy, Microsoft has executed three PPAs for renewable vitality and is pursuing further contractual alternatives within the close to future. Microsoft can be transitioning backup mills at datacenters to be powered by a renewable biofuel that reduces internet carbon emissions and the datacenter in Italy is LEED Gold licensed. Microsoft’s owned datacenters in its Italy North area are additionally registered beneath the EU Code of Conduct for vitality effectivity in datacenters and an impartial third social gathering EU Code of Conduct audit was efficiently accomplished in January 2024.
Along with intently measuring and monitoring vitality use, Microsoft Italian datacenters use direct evaporative cooling techniques to assist cut back water use. This cooling system is very vitality and water environment friendly, utilizing water for cooling lower than 5% of the yr and fewer electrical energy than different water-based cooling techniques corresponding to cooling towers. Nearly all of water used is harvested rainwater groundwater and is used for five cycles of focus and water reuse. Water from these cooling techniques is then discharged again to the native wastewater utility remedy plant, following native laws.
In 2023, Microsoft launched the AI and Sustainability Playbook, outlining the alternatives that AI gives for accelerating sustainability. Along with designing, constructing, and working AI infrastructure for sustainability, the appliance of AI could be a highly effective device for reaching the tempo and scale of sustainability options to handle the local weather problem.
AI 4 Italy: Impacts and prospects of Generative Synthetic Intelligence for Italy and Made in Italy”