Portugal set for $40 billion American tech windfall by 2031

That’s according to the United States ambassador to Portugal, John Arrigo, who says the move will position the country as home to Europe's largest concentration of US artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

His comments came this week at a ceremony marking the successful connection of Google's new Nuvem transatlantic cable.

It is a transatlantic subsea cable system linking the US with Bermuda, the Azores and mainland Portugal. The first of its kind, it is designed to improve network resilience across the ocean.

Ambassador Arrigo described the project as the clearest signal yet of a deepening partnership between Washington and Lisbon.

He said the scale of forthcoming investment would make Portugal the leading destination in Europe for American AI infrastructure spending, urging the rest of the continent to follow suit by building its digital future alongside trusted US partners rather than risk being left behind.

The Nuvem cable is being held up as a symbol of this growing technological alliance.

Beyond the cable itself, Portugal is fast becoming a magnet for large-scale data centre development.

The country now has more than 2.6 gigawatts of data centre capacity in the pipeline, the largest of which is the 1.2 GW Start Campus project in Sines, south of Lisbon.

That development is backed by the American investment firm Davidson Kempner and stands as one of the most significant infrastructure schemes of its kind on the continent.

America's economic footprint in Portugal is already substantial.

The US is currently Portugal's third-largest foreign investor, with investment stock of close to $20 billion spread across sectors including AI, energy, agriculture and tourism.

The anticipated wave of new tech investment would build significantly on that existing base.

Ambassador Arrigo also praised Portugal's approach to data governance, saying its sovereign cloud framework achieves a careful balance: open enough to continue attracting major partners such as Google, yet disciplined enough to safeguard sensitive national interests. He described this as exactly the model the rest of Europe should be looking to adopt at present.

Framing the choice facing European nations more broadly, the ambassador argued that the real decision is not between sovereignty and partnership, but between building a digital future in cooperation with trusted allies and attempting to go it alone, risking falling behind global competitors.

The comments come at a moment of intensifying competition among European nations to attract investment in AI and data infrastructure, as demand for computing power, cloud services and digital connectivity continues to surge worldwide.

Paul Stannard, chairman and founder of Portugal Pathways, said: “We see a huge level of interest from US investors, especially through Portugal’s Golden Visa residency-by-investment programme.

“The growing US interest, especially at the level of this forthcoming deal, represents a significant vote of confidence in its position as a strategic gateway between Europe and North America, reinforcing Portugal’s ambitions to become a key node in the transatlantic digital economy over the coming years.”

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