Poland is emerging as a leader in data center capacity growth in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2025 alone, the sector generated PLN 10.6 billion in gross value added and PLN 4.3 billion in fiscal revenues. Its potential, however, is significantly greater, according to a report by the Polish Data Center Association (PLDCA) and PwC Polska. The authors argue that the ongoing expansion of Poland’s energy infrastructure could help attract further investment, while lengthy administrative procedures remain one of the market’s main weaknesses.
“When we look at the broader European data center market, Poland unfortunately accounts for only around 2% of it. On the one hand, this puts us in a good starting position for further development, which I hope will accelerate soon. The entire European data center market represents around 14 GW of capacity, while Poland has only about 250 MW. Given Poland’s position as the fifth-largest economy in the European Union, the sector is clearly underdeveloped relative to the size of the economy,” Krystian Pypłacz, an expert at the Polish Data Center Association (PLDCA), told Newseria.
According to data from the European Data Centre Association (EUDCA), cited by the authors of the report “Powering the Economy: The Economic Impact of the Data Center Sector in Poland,” total data center capacity in Poland could exceed 550 MW by 2031. That would represent more than a doubling compared with 2025 levels.
Under a more optimistic scenario, the market could reach around 5 GW by 2040, based on investment plans prepared by Poland’s transmission system operator, Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE).
“The Western European data center market is already highly saturated. There are constraints on available grid connection capacity. In cities such as Dublin and Amsterdam, there have even been restrictions or moratoria affecting the construction of new large-scale data centers. In this respect, Poland is well positioned to absorb significant additional capacity and provide the necessary grid connections and power supply. Energy infrastructure is our main advantage,” Pypłacz said.
Experts believe that if investment in electricity grids and new generation capacity translates into actual infrastructure availability, Poland could attract some of the projects that can no longer be located in Europe’s most congested data center hubs.
“Poland’s strong position in terms of energy availability allows us to connect large amounts of computing capacity. We have locations where campuses with capacities of 1 GW or more could be built. That alone would represent four to five times the country’s current capacity. PSE also anticipates capacities of this scale in its grid development plans, so our potential in this area is considerable,” the PLDCA expert said.
Planned projects include the Baltic Data Center Campus in Pomerania, with a target capacity of 3.2 GW, a site in Stargard with infrastructure scalable to 960 MW, and the Bełchatów Data Center Campus, with a planned capacity of 500 MW.
These projects go beyond the traditional model of individual data centers and follow the logic of large hyperscale campuses and infrastructure designed to support artificial intelligence workloads.
Poland could benefit from the EU’s computing capacity expansion
Poland could also benefit from the European Union’s strategy to expand data center computing capacity. The European Commission has proposed tripling data center capacity across the EU over the next five to seven years.
At the same time, Brussels has stressed the need for a more geographically balanced distribution of computing resources across Europe and for reducing the concentration of infrastructure in existing data center hubs.
Poland has been identified as one of the key emerging European markets, alongside Spain, Italy and the Nordic countries, where growing demand for new digital infrastructure investment is already becoming visible.
“The European Union’s new strategy, including plans for the location of AI gigafactories, assumes greater geographical diversification. This should also include Central and Eastern Europe, where Poland is the leading market. I hope this will help bring a significant part of this strategically important European infrastructure to our country,” Pypłacz said.
AI gigafactories are large-scale facilities designed to support the most computationally demanding artificial intelligence applications, including the training and deployment of advanced AI models.
Such facilities combine massive computing power with more than 100,000 advanced AI processors and require highly reliable energy supplies, resilient supply chains, advanced networking infrastructure, high levels of energy efficiency and AI-based automation.
At the end of July, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking launched a call for proposals to select projects for the development of next-generation European computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence.
Poland is participating in the initiative and intends to compete to host one of Europe’s AI Gigafactories. According to the Polish Ministry of Digital Affairs, the planned project would be important not only for Poland but for the entire region.
Lithuania, Hungary, Croatia and Slovakia are among the countries that have already expressed their willingness to purchase computing services from the future infrastructure.
“Another important advantage for Poland is its climate. Apart from the Scandinavian countries, we have some of the lowest average annual temperatures in Europe, which reduces the cost of cooling these facilities,” the PLDCA expert said.
Poland’s temperate continental climate and relatively low average temperatures provide favourable conditions for the use of free-cooling systems during a significant part of the year.
According to PLDCA and PwC experts, this gives Poland an operational advantage over warmer Southern European markets such as Madrid, Milan and Lisbon, where cooling requirements are structurally higher.
Administrative procedures remain a major barrier
“The main factor limiting market growth is the administrative process involved in building data centers. At the current stage, the market is focused on delivering projects rapidly and bringing them into operation. We are talking about time to market, and today the time required to deliver an investment has become more important than money itself. We therefore need to shorten these procedures if Poland is to become more competitive in the European market,” Pypłacz said.
The issue has also been addressed in the proposed EU Cloud and AI Development Act, or CADA.
The European Commission has proposed that member states establish designated areas for accelerated data center development, where simplified procedures would apply. These could include a one-stop administrative system coordinating the entire investment process and a maximum period of 12 months for obtaining the required decisions.
“At present, administrative procedures related to environmental permits and building permits can take more than two years. This is the main obstacle holding back the development of the market,” the PLDCA expert said.
Data centers support nearly 41,000 jobs in Poland
According to the Polish Data Center Association, Poland’s total pipeline of planned IT capacity currently stands at around 500 MW.
The data center sector supports almost 41,000 full-time equivalent jobs in Poland.
Just over 27,000 of these positions are linked to the day-to-day operation of data centers. They include IT engineers, data center technicians, network specialists, facility managers, security personnel, as well as administrative, financial and sales teams.
A further 4,300 jobs are generated within supply chains serving the sector. These include construction and energy companies, suppliers of cooling systems and electrical installations, logistics providers and professional services firms.
Another 9,500 jobs are supported by spending by data center employees and their households, generating employment in areas including retail, local services, housing and healthcare.
