It is not seen, it is not touched directly, but it sustains everything else. The evolution of DE-CIX Lisboa is one of these cases and deserves much more attention than it usually receives.

In 2025, DE-CIX Lisboa increased its installed capacity by more than 120%, reaching 1.8 Terabits. Translated into something more tangible, we are talking about the capacity of hundreds of thousands of high-definition videos to be broadcast simultaneously. But more important than the number itself is what it represents. Scale, trust and international relevance. Those who work closely with the industry know that Internet Exchanges are one of the most critical pieces of the global digital infrastructure. They are the point where networks, platforms, companies and countries interconnect, and the greater the capacity and density of these connections, the greater the efficiency, the lower the latency and the more competitive a country's digital economy becomes.

It is here that Portugal consistently begins to assert itself. Lisbon is no longer just a peripheral point to become a true transcontinental interconnection hub, where Europe, Africa and the Americas intersect with increasing intensity. For years, this role has been concentrated in cities such as London or Frankfurt, but that balance is changing. DE-CIX has been one of the great catalysts for this transformation, not only for its technical investment, but for its strategic vision of growth and global positioning. And here it is worth highlighting the work done under the leadership of Ivo Ivanov, who has led the company with a very clear reading of where the future of connectivity lies.

The growth in the number of connected networks, the increase in global capacity and the investment in state-of-the-art technologies show that this is not a reactive movement. It is anticipation. It is preparation for a world where artificial intelligence, cloud and data economy will require levels of capacity that we are still beginning to understand. And this point is often ignored. We talk about data centres, artificial intelligence and the cloud, but we forget that none of this works without a robust, efficient and global interconnection infrastructure.

This is exactly what is being built in Portugal. Submarine cables, data centers, and platforms like DE-CIX create a network effect that attracts more investment, more companies, and more talent. As someone who will be involved in the Atlantic Convergence, I see it increasingly clear that these movements are not isolated. They are part of a larger pattern, where Portugal is no longer just a consumer of technology to become an infrastructure of that same technology. And when that happens, the impact is no longer technical but economic, strategic, and profoundly transformative.