Start Campus has announced a partnership with Nscale to deploy 12,600 NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 Ultra GPUs at the SIN01 data center in Sines, Portugal. According to Start Campus, this project will be one of the first deployments of the NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 platform in the European Union, delivering high-performance AI inference and training on a hyperscale basis. NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 platforms are engineered for development, training, and deployment of large and complex artificial intelligence models.
The deployment will be hosted at Start Campus’s SIN01 facility, which is reportedly operating at full capacity and now undergoing expansion. Nscale selected the Sines site for its location, deployment readiness, and scalability. Start Campus specifies that the infrastructure and initial GPU deployment are scheduled to be live in the first quarter of 2026.
SIN01 is designed to support rack densities exceeding 130 kW, with cooling and power infrastructure capable of supporting next-generation, high-density AI compute. Start Campus says its facility integrates liquid cooling technologies into a flexible, scalable platform, with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) target of 1.1 and a Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) target of zero, leveraging ocean-based cooling. The site operates entirely on renewable energy.
Nscale and Start Campus note that the location in Portugal offers strong connectivity through a variety of high-capacity subsea cables, including Equiano, 2Africa, and EllaLink, supporting ultra-low-latency global networks. The companies cite research forecasting data center investment in Portugal could contribute up to €26 billion in GDP by 2030 as the country positions itself as a digital infrastructure hub.
Technical leaders commenting on the deployment highlight strategic and operational drivers. “AI needs the right environment to thrive – ones that combine scale, resilience and sustainability,” said Josh Payne, CEO and founder of Nscale. “This deployment underlines our ability to deliver advanced infrastructure in the European Union with the technical depth required for today’s most demanding workloads. Partnering with Start Campus ensures we can meet the needs of our customers while laying foundations for the next generation of AI.”
The SIN01 project aims to address increasing demand among technology vendors and hyperscale operators for sovereign, sustainable, and high-density AI compute in Europe. The companies claim that this deployment demonstrates the readiness of Portugal and Sines to support intensive AI workloads and future digital growth.
Source: Start Campus, Nscale
