Polarise to lease capacity from CRA in Prague, Czechia

European AI cloud firm Polarise is to lease capacity in the Czech Republic (aka Czechia) from local telecoms firm České Radiokomunikace (CRA).

Prague Gateway DC, the data center arm of CRA, and Polarise last week announced that the latter firm has reserved 15MW of capacity in the data center company’s planned facility outside Prague. The liquid-cooled capacity will be Polarise’s first in Czechia.

Based in Germany, Polarise offers bare metal, private cloud, and GPU services. The company recently launched an AI Factory in Munich, Germany, in partnership with Deutsche Telekom and Nvidia, following its first AI factory in Oslo, Norway. Another is in development around Frankfurt, and the firm has another 65MW site in development outside Munich.

CRA’s Prague Gateway facility is set to offer 26MW of capacity. Ground was broken late last year, and the first 700-rack phase is due to go live before the end of 2027.

Michel Boutouil, founder and CEO of Polarise, said: “Europe needs sovereign AI capacity, and it needs it fast – not from one mega-site, but from a network. That is the idea behind our GigaGrid: many smaller, connected AI factories across Europe that share workloads and strengthen the whole.

“This is the way the EU can achieve the compute power and digital sovereignty it seeks – on European terms. With CRA, Prague Gateway becomes a strong Central European node in that grid – a high-density, AI-ready location in the heart of the continent.”

Miloš Mastník, CEO of České Radiokomunikace, added: “We are gaining a strong European partner that is building a key layer of sovereign AI infrastructure on our capacity. The Prague Gateway data center has been designed precisely for this type of customer, and the cooperation with Polarise confirms that the Czech Republic has something to offer on a European scale.”

Czech telecoms firm České Radiokomunikace was founded in 1963 under the name Správa radiokomunikaci and privatized in the 1990s. Cordiant Digital Infrastructure – a fund created by Cordiant Capital and listed on the London Stock Exchange – bought CRA from Macquarie Asset Management in 2021 for an undisclosed price.

CRA first announced plans for a new data center in the Zbraslav – Jíloviště area on the outskirts of Prague back in 2022 with a 2024 start date. After delays, the company last year said it was about to start ramping up the project. The data center will be located on the land previously used for radio broadcasts.

Sat on a 56,000 sqm (602,780 sq ft) plot, the two-story facility will offer 26MW across 2,000 racks and 4,000 sqm (43,055 sq ft). The company has previously said it will feature four meet-me rooms and two power feeds, and aim to support up to 30kW per rack and offer its waste heat for reuse.

CRA’s core data center, known as the DC Tower, operates under the Zizkov transmitter. The company has also repurposed smaller facilities in the Cukrák and Strahov areas of Prague, as well as in Ostrava, Brno, Zlín, Lužice, and Pardubice – all in the Czech Republic. The firm also has its own backbone fiber-optic network.