Google to Partner With Telecom Italia on Data Centers

Daniele Lepido (Bloomberg) -- Google will share its data center expertise with Telecom Italia SpA to help the phone company sell new cloud and edge computing services to corporate clients.

The partnership with the U.S. tech giant will allow Telecom Italia to secure new revenue for its information technology division, the Milan-based carrier said in a statement.

Telecom Italia shares rose 1.9% earlier, their biggest gain in almost a month, after Bloomberg reported the tie-up.

Google’s cloud services could help boost the profitability of Telecom Italia’s 23 data centers in Italy, which it’s planning to spin off and list on the stock market in a deal that could value the business at around 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).

The partnership will also involve building new data centers to be wholly owned by Telecom Italia. The company said it plans to hire or train more than 800 cloud engineers in the next few years.