Microsoft will be the only tenant of a new hyperscale data center in Amsterdam. The new data center in the Western Port Area consists of three 85-meter-high towers.
This was reported by NRC. British developer Pure DC is building the new data center. Its power consumption is equivalent to that of all households in Haarlem combined. Microsoft has confirmed to NRC that it will be the sole user, something that the tech company does not “normally” disclose publicly.
Legal construction circumvents the ban
Despite the national ban on new hyperscales from 2022, the hyperscale may still be built. This is due to a construction in the permit application. The construction project has been divided into three separate data center permits, each separately approved by the province of North Holland. “From a legal point of view, these separate data centers do not meet the criteria for a hyperscale,” the province writes in response to questions from the State Council.
In 2022, the cabinet decided that new hyperscales may only be built in Eemshaven and Wieringermeerpolder. These immense data centers consume significant space and power and are used exclusively by a single party. The province later stated that the project “can be considered as a single data center,” but emphasized that the initial plans date from 2016, before the ban came into effect.
The plan has been met with criticism from politicians and society. Amsterdam, for example, is struggling with an acute capacity shortage on the power grid. A letter from the municipal executive to the city council shows that 591 Liander customers are on the waiting list for a new or heavier connection. The capacity will remain insufficient for at least another ten years, threatening to delay the construction of 30,000 homes. Fifty schools and daycare centers cannot be built, and another fifty cannot be renovated.
Microsoft’s growing Dutch footprint
Rick Pijpers, former director of Equinix and initiator of the Dutch Sovereign Data Center Cooperative, argues that Microsoft’s grip on the Dutch market is greater than many realize. At the end of 2025, Microsoft purchased another 50 hectares for expansion in Middenmeer and also leases a large part of the capacity in data centers in Haarlemmermeer. “Everything is going to the Americans, and there is hardly any space or power left for local data centers, even though they are important for Dutch companies and governments,” says Pijpers.
Microsoft told NRC that it is committed to “carefully integrating data centers into the environment, with high standards of energy efficiency and an open and transparent dialogue with local stakeholders.” This summer, D66 alderman Steven van Weyenberg defended the arrival of six new data centers in Amsterdam, including the Microsoft hyperscale, as “good governance.” The arrival means a doubling of the power consumption of all existing data centers in the city.