The event is being organized by Prague-based investment company Gi21, owned by Damir Špoljarič. In 2020, Špoljarič and his colleague sold VSHosting, which operates a data center in Prague, to German hosting group Contabo for hundreds of millions of Czech crowns. At the same time, he became a shareholder in Contabo and began investing in startups and other activities through Gi21. Recently, for example, he and other investors exited the Czech startup Taikun, which was bought by Americans.

Špoljarič has combined Gi21's activities with the new Altiora Partners fund, through which he and his German partners intend to invest primarily in activities related to clouds, data centers, and IT infrastructure. This will involve both investments in existing companies and the construction of their own data centers.

The planned data center will be located in northern Bohemia, and matters surrounding the land are currently being finalized. The necessary fiber optic cable connections are available at the site, and a nearby 110-kilovolt electrical substation is being completed, which will make it possible to power the data center.

The complex should have a capacity of 20 megawatts. This is close to the size of the České Radiokomunikace data center in the outskirts of Prague, which is expected to have an output of 26 megawatts in the first phase (if the AI gigafactory goes ahead, the facility is to be expanded to 77 megawatts).

Another data center that Gi21 is preparing will be located in Finland, not far from Google's data center. It will have the same modular approach as the facility in northern Bohemia. However, the final design will be significantly larger, with a capacity of up to 100 megawatts, specifically 10 blocks of 10 megawatts each. The Finnish climate and energy sector make such a large installation possible.

"In the new data centers, we don't have to provide space only for AI infrastructure, but also for regular servers. There is still a shortage of space for large installations, which we will help to solve," said Špoljarič.

The lack of space for a large number of servers was also confirmed in the past by Miloš Mastník, director of České Radiokomunikace. "Czechia is currently unable to meet the demand of multinational giants. For example, they require immediate capacity of five hundred server racks. Czechia has already lost out on several interesting deals. We don't want these projects to end up in other countries," said Mastník.

Prepared by foreign office CzechTrade Romania.
Source: E15.cz