Microsoft to Build Massive Data Centre in Amsterdam Despite Bans

Microsoft will be the sole tenant of a giant new data centre in Amsterdam's western port area, despite both municipal and national bans on such facilities. The project, consisting of three 85-metre towers, will consume roughly as much electricity as all the households in Haarlem combined.

The data centre is being built by Pure Data Centres, a British developer backed by American investment firm Oaktree Capital Management. Pure DC announced in December that it had signed Europe's largest standalone hyperscale data centre lease of 2025 and would invest over €1 billion in the project. Construction began in January 2026, with the first phase expected to be operational by 2028.

The approval has raised eyebrows because Amsterdam banned new data centres in late 2023, and the Dutch national government banned hyperscale data centres, those larger than 10 hectares or consuming more than 70 megawatts, in 2022. Both bans were introduced because data centres place enormous demands on the electricity grid, which is already struggling to keep up with demand.

The Amsterdam project was able to proceed for two reasons. First, the initial plans date back to 2016, before either ban was in place. This means the project falls under transitional rules that allow previously announced developments to continue.

Second, and more controversially, the province of Noord-Holland approved separate permits for each of the three towers rather than treating them as a single facility. Because each tower individually falls below the thresholds that define a hyperscale data centre, the province concluded that the project does not technically violate the ban.

"From a legal perspective, these three separate data centres do not meet the criteria for a hyperscale," the province said in response to questions from provincial councillors.

Critics argue this is a loophole that defeats the purpose of the restrictions. The three towers will function together as a single facility, consuming 78 megawatts of power in total, just above the 70-megawatt threshold that defines a hyperscale.

The Amsterdam project adds to Microsoft's already substantial presence in the Netherlands. The company operates a large data centre campus in Middenmeer, in the Wieringermeer polder north of Amsterdam, and in September 2025 purchased an additional 50 hectares there for expansion. Microsoft also rents significant capacity from other data centre operators in the Haarlemmermeer area near Schiphol airport.

Rick Pijpers, former director of data centre company Equinix and founder of the Dutch Sovereign Datacenter Cooperative, warned that American tech giants are crowding out Dutch and European providers.

"Everything is going to the Americans and there is hardly any grid capacity left for local data centres, which are so important for Dutch industry and the government," he said.

Six new server farms are being built in the Wieringermeer polder on top of the ten already there. Google also operates a major facility in Eemshaven in Groningen province.

The data centre boom comes at a difficult time for Amsterdam. The city is facing severe electricity grid congestion, with the operator Liander warning that shortages will persist until at least 2030. In some parts of the city, power outages could begin as early as 2026.

The shortage has real consequences beyond data centres. City officials said at the end of last year that plans to build 30,000 homes and 50 schools are under threat because there is not enough grid capacity to connect them, and that there are "no quick fixes" to the situation.

Data centres are not solely responsible for the grid problems, but they are significant contributors. A single large data centre can consume as much electricity as 15,000 homes. Amsterdam's metropolitan area hosts at least 33 data centres within a 20-kilometre radius, making it one of the largest clusters in Europe.

In April 2025, Amsterdam announced it would not allow any more data centres or expansions in the municipality until at least 2030, except for projects already in the pipeline. Alderman Zita Pels said the city needed to reserve grid capacity for other priorities.

"Space in Amsterdam is scarce, not just for home construction, but also for the electricity network," the municipality said.

Despite the restrictions, Amsterdam remains attractive to data centre operators. The city hosts AMS-IX, one of the world's largest internet exchanges, which provides fast connections between networks. It also has excellent subsea cable connectivity to the UK and the rest of Europe, and a business-friendly environment with skilled workers.

These advantages have made the Netherlands, and Amsterdam in particular, a major hub for cloud computing infrastructure. The Dutch Data Center Association estimates that data centres account for about 20% of foreign direct investment in the country.

But the concentration has created tensions. When Amsterdam first imposed restrictions in 2019, the industry complained that the sudden move damaged the city's reputation. Some operators said American companies seeing headlines about Amsterdam being "closed" would simply move to other cities without investigating further.

The restrictions have not stopped growth entirely, they have redirected it. Microsoft, Google, and other hyperscale operators have expanded in the Wieringermeer polder and Eemshaven, both of which were exempted from the national ban because they have more space and better access to renewable energy from offshore wind farms.

The project also touches on broader questions about digital sovereignty. Just a day before the Microsoft data centre news broke, the Dutch competition watchdog ACM published a report warning of "extreme Dutch dependence" on American technology companies, particularly for cloud services.

Microsoft, Amazon, and Google dominate the European cloud market, and switching between providers is expensive and technically difficult. The ACM said this gives these companies significant market power and creates strategic risks for Dutch businesses and government agencies.

Supporters of data centre development argue that having facilities in the Netherlands is better than relying on servers abroad, because it keeps data closer to users and under Dutch and European legal jurisdiction. Microsoft's CEO for the Netherlands, Joris Schoonis, said the company has 300,000 customers who want to store their data locally in a sovereign country, with geopolitical tensions adding to demand for secure domestic storage.

But critics counter that the facilities are owned and operated by American companies, which limits how much sovereignty they actually provide.