In a data center near Pavia, Italy, a single square meter uses as much electricity as 10 homes. It's the continent's paradoxical solution—massive computers that burn plenty of power while racing to solve tomorrow's electricity challenges.
The irony isn't lost on industry leaders. They're doubling down anyway.
Italy's Eni now runs what it calls the world's most powerful industrial supercomputer outside the United States: a 606 PFlops machine capable of 600 quadrillion calculations per second—roughly 80,000 times faster than a high-end laptop. While American tech giants dominate cloud computing, companies across the continent are building their own quantum-ready facilities, betting that computational independence matters more than the electricity bills.
"Quantum computing could be very important for Europe, also to develop a new internet—a quantum internet," Dario Pagani, who heads digital technology at Eni, told Euractiv. "It's a new frontier where the EU can play a big role."
The EU has trailed in past digital races—from social media to semiconductors. But industrial leaders think this sector offers a real opening, according to Euractiv's reporting.
The Machines Reshaping Industry
Forget drilling. Today's discoveries happen inside supercomputers.
These machines simulate battery chemistries that don't exist yet. They design solar panels atom by atom. They model carbon capture projects that could trap millions of tonnes of CO₂ underground—if the geology cooperates. Most intriguingly, they're tackling fusion reactor physics that would overwhelm regular computers, chasing commercially viable fusion.
The old job—analyzing seismic data for oil deposits—now seems almost quaint by comparison.
Companies across the continent are mixing strategies, Euractiv reports. France's TotalEnergies runs Pangea systems that blend on-site muscle with cloud services. E.ON in Germany partnered with IBM to develop quantum algorithms for weather-risk management. Spain's Iberdrola built quantum-inspired software called Singularity to optimize power grids.
But Eni went furthest. The company started writing its own code in the 1980s—decades before everyone started talking about computing sovereignty.
10 Kilowatts Per Square Meter
Here's what rarely makes headlines: these machines are power monsters.
Eni tackled this head-on in 2013, building its Green Data Centre with a seemingly contradictory mission—house ever more powerful computers while cutting electricity use. The facility near Pavia became one of the most efficient data centers on the continent, though "efficient" is relative when you're burning 10 kilowatts per square meter.
"Since its construction, it's one of the most energy-efficient data centres in Europe and among the best for carbon footprint," Pagani told Euractiv.
The design allows constant upgrades. As each generation of hardware arrives—hungrier than the last—engineers squeeze out efficiency gains wherever possible. It's an ongoing challenge that mirrors the broader transition itself.
Code from the 1980s
Why build when you can rent from Amazon or Microsoft?
Eni's answer: because security increasingly depends on computational sovereignty. The company's investment in proprietary systems, with code dating to the 1980s, reflects strategic thinking that's paying off.
"We have been building highly specialized internal software skills to make best use of our computational power," Pagani said.
A decade ago, Eni bet on hybrid architectures that mix CPUs (for general computing) with GPUs (chips originally built to render video games). Gamers wanted better graphics; Eni wanted to model fusion reactions. Those same chips now power many of the world's fastest scientific computers.
It's a path that demands big upfront investment and specialized talent. Whether the continent can sustain this momentum alongside Silicon Valley's resources remains to be seen.
Beyond the Giants
Something unexpected is happening: companies are opening their digital vaults.
Startups, universities, and research labs are getting access to computational power they could never afford alone. The logic is straightforward—more minds tackling problems means faster breakthroughs in renewables, storage, and emissions reduction.
It's also strategic. By building an ecosystem around their infrastructure, these companies hope to speed development while shoring up support for continued investment.
Pagani emphasized to Euractiv that facilities like Eni's could strengthen the entire continent: "It's a new frontier where the EU can play a big role."
The EU's track record in digital frontiers is uneven, but this sector might be different—here the region has both industrial expertise and urgent need.
The Race Intensifies
As demand climbs and net-zero deadlines approach, these computing systems have graduated from useful tools to critical infrastructure. They're becoming the difference between independence and dependence.
Companies are pressing policymakers in Brussels and national capitals for more support, industry executives told Euractiv, arguing that computational sovereignty directly affects security. The message is clear: these machines are essential for the transition.
The investment is substantial. These power-intensive systems might unlock fusion, revolutionize renewables, or optimize grids beyond what we can currently imagine.
In data centers across the continent, the meters keep spinning—10 kilowatts per square meter, every second—in pursuit of a future that depends on solving the paradox of needing massive power to ultimately save power.
The stakes couldn't be higher. In the race between computational advancement and climate deadlines, every calculation counts—even if each one costs a household's worth of electricity.
