Following the closer relations between Israel and Albania, Israeli company ADC has been selected to build the first data center in the country. The project, which will be built in a free trade zone near the capital Tirana, will cost an estimated €100 million. The facility will be based on Nvidia's Robin graphics processors and will provide 32 megawatts, with the potential to expand to 100 megawatts.
ADC is jointly owned by Happy Technologies (80%) - a cyber and computing company owned by Roi Shaposhnik, Noam Frank, Shlomi Avni and Itai Melchior; and by data centers consulting company DIT (20%), headed by experts Zvika Friedman, Nir Poltorak and Dan Carmi.
Permit within 60 days and green electricity
As a government project in a NATO member state and candidate for EU membership, the venture will benefit from exceptional terms for Israeli companies. The building permit was granted to the company within just 60 days, and the facility is being built on 4.5 acres of government land (with an option for an additional 3.25 acres) in the TEDA free trade zone, which is under construction west of Tirana.
In addition, the communications and electricity infrastructure has been laid in advance, and the local electric company is building a dedicated substation on the site. The Albanian National Electricity Company will provide a green electricity facility from a hydroelectric source.
On the financing front, ADC has secured a line of credit from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for 75% of the project cost.
Even before construction has been completed, the data center has secured three major clients: Albanian technology company Infosoft, a German storage company, and an Albanian government client whose identity remains confidential.
The data center’s entrepreneurs see European and American customers looking for AI processing centers powered by green electricity as a key growth potential for the expansion phase as well. Data centers in Europe are a replacement for those in the US, which suffers from a bottleneck in the development of data centers and power plants.
A president who opposes Hamas
Israel and Albania have drawn significantly closer in the past two years, in particular after an Iranian cyberattack on Tirana in 2022, following which the country began to use Israeli cybersecurity technologies to protect government and private organizations.
During the war, relations between the countries experienced another significant warming, and Albania stood out as one of Israel's closest friends in Europe. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama visited Israel at the height of the fighting, and in his speech at the UN he denounced Hamas and wore the yellow pin for release of the hostages. A month after the signing of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, Elbit Systems signed a contract to supply artillery systems and drones to the Albanian army.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 3, 2026.
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