(Editor’s note: This post on the proposed Pantheon AI data center in Croatia is part of Dispatches’ Tech Tuesday series. Dispatches covers tech because so many of our highly skilled internationals are engineers and entrepreneurs. Terry Boyd also contributed to this post.)
What happens when a 50 billion euro AI data centre is being planned in a country like Croatia, which is enviably rich in natural resources?
Resistance. And questions.
Just how credible is the project. And if it happens, just how much is this ambitious project actually going to harm Croatia’s environment?
Topusko, home to thermal springs, historic sites … and AI tech?
The Pantheon AI data centre is planned for Topusko, about 100 kilometers south of Zagreb near the Bosnia border. It’s know for its hot springs and history. Cutting edge tech? Not so much. The plan is to build a data center with a 1 gigawatt capacity, instantly boosting Croatia into the ranks of the top digital infrastructure hubs in Europe. The project would reportedly require a 50 billion euro investment, with construction due to begin in 2027, with the data center online in 2029.
Croatian entrepreneur and engineer Jako Andabak, the man who brought American investors there, is the man in the know.
“I’m happy to have the opportunity to participate in the development of a project that represents the height of global AI tech. I think Croatia deserves this, primarily because of its stable and secure political and economic situation,” Andabak said of the concept. The Pantheon facility is designed to exceed the most stringent reliability standards in Europe, ensuring near- continuous function, according to its promoters.
The Pantheon project envisages 280 kilometres of transmission lines, a 500 megawatt solar plant, a high-capacity substation, and the employment of around 1,500 people after construction is complete. It will also see additional renewable energy projects able to connect to the grid, thus cementing Croatia’s energy network position.
Pantheon has claimed that power for the 1 gigawatt hyperscaler data centre campus will be supplied entirely by renewables. And that could be key to this project actually happening. In a Wall Street Journal editorial, Pantheon managing partner Ryan Rich wrote that Croatia’s power grid “is among the cleanest in Europe: Renewables supplied more than 52 percent of all electricity consumed in 2025, with a further 15 percent from nuclear. “
Electricity prices run significantly below the European average.
Workforce will be a major challenge. “Around half of the employees will hold university degrees, meaning these are jobs with high added value. We’ve got countless experts in Croatia who we often don’t even know exist, and who are ready to take on these responsibilities,” Andabak said. He noted that employees will have the opportunity to work on high tech projects, their salaries will be competitive and their working conditions will be good.
The project also implies investments in new roads, healthcare facilities and education in a fairly isolated area.
Missing details
So far, so good, right? But there’s a lot missing in this deal including, cruicially, who, exactly, is putting up the 50 billion euros? On the Pantheon website, there are few details about financing other than, “Pantheon Atlas LLC is the investment vehicle through which a group of US institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals are deploying capital into the project.”
Which is vague.
Managing partner Rich is part of 24 Ventures, a small early stage VC based in Buffalo, New York, that invests in software. But 50 billion euros is a signficant investment, requiring digital infrastructure investors on the level of a giant global firm such as a Carlyle Group, a Blackstone or a KKR. But the Pantheon website only lists consultants/number crunchers such as EY and PwC.
The website does list Greenvolt, a European renewables developer owned by KKR, to build the storage plant. But that would be a small portion of the total investment. And that’s not even a done deal, with Pantheon and Greenvolt only signing a letter of intent, according to media reports.
Marjiana Puljak, a member of the Croatian parliament and a computer scientist, is asking other hard questions, like which American companies will be the end users? Puljak noted that no anchor tenants –the global tech giants such as Amazon or Microsoft known as hyperscalers – have committed, according to the Recursive.
‘This project won’t harm the environment’
AI consumes staggering amounts of electricity and water, and this is the primary concern for many people. Andabak claimed this project will increase total consumption in Croatia by about 20 percent. “It isn’t a small amount, but with our intervention in the high-voltage network, we’ll open the possibility for many who are already waiting to be connected. At the same time, such a consumer will help stabilise the network and take energy from renewable sources that will compensate for the necessary consumption,” he stated.
Speaking about water consumption, Andabak revealed that detailed tests of underground sources have been carried out, claiming that the project “will use water exclusively to the extent that is permitted, without harming the environment”, which for many Croatians is much too vague of a response to a very important concern.
Andabak said that he doesn’t expect serious obstacles, but that he’s ready for dialogue. “People naturally have different views, but I’m sure our arguments are strong enough to show that the project is going to be beneficial,” he said. The majority of the work would be carried out by Croatian companies.
Andabak touched on the arrival of US investors, noting that interest in a project of this type and scale also existed in other countries, but that Croatia had a crucial advantage – stability and safety.
“We had to prove that Croatia had all the prerequisites – from infrastructure to capacity – and we absolutely succeeded in doing so,” he said, adding that the partners agreed on significant investments, especially in energy infrastructure in this otherwise severely demographically and economically challenged part of the country.
Croatian member of parliament and computer scientist Puljak warns that at this point, Pantheon is a PR campaign by Andabak, an engineer and entrepeneur. “Technology does not tolerate PR, it only tolerates exact mathematics,” Puljak stated, calling for a shift from public relations to a credible plan: “The devil is in the details, and here the details are massive.”
Lauren Simmonds
Lauren Simmonds is the editor of Total Croatia News, the largest English language portal in Croatia. She lives in Zagreb, Croatia, and is a translator, content writer, interpreter and the co-author of "Croatia - A Survival Kit for Foreigners," which was published in 2022.
