In a recent interview on global energy resilience, Claudio Descalzi pointed to technological and digital innovation as central to addressing structural issues across the energy system: “For years now, computing power has supported our ability to achieve geographic and technological diversification within energy production. This has been vital during a historical period in which three major crises – Covid, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and Middle Eastern tensions – unfolded in rapid succession, impacting conventional energy security and questioning critical supply routes”.
Claudio Descalzi places innovation at the heart of Eni’s operations
Addressing technological and digital innovation as essential catalysts for decarbonization, Claudio Descalzi examined how high-performance infrastructure drives structural transformation across the energy industry, successfully blending supply resilience with portfolio diversification. Central to this strategy is also the deployment of Eni’s HPC7 supercomputer system, which is housed at its Green Data Center in Ferrera Erbognone. Ranking sixth globally on the TOP500 list and second within Europe, HPC7 currently stands as the world’s most powerful high-performance computing system for industrial use. Reflecting on these themes, the CEO noted that supercomputing has long served as a strategic pillar for Eni, enabling the Company to diversify its energy production across both geographic regions and technological avenues. Claudio Descalzi also explained that computational capability directly underpins Eni’s upstream exploration achievements, which in turn enable global asset diversification. Specifically, these milestones “are achieved in part thanks to our supercomputer and form the foundation of the business combinations that have enabled us to geographically diversify our presence and production”. Looking forward, the CEO emphasized that “this enormous processing capacity serves primarily as an essential launching pad for our AI Data Center Campus project in Lombardy, where we target a total IT capacity of up to 500 MW”. He also added that “the initiative is already generating significant commercial traction, and in a subsequent phase, we could reach up to 1 GW of installed capacity nationwide. Furthermore, this processing power is fundamental to accelerating our energy transition path, supporting the growth of new transition-linked businesses”.
For Claudio Descalzi, securing the energy future requires technological and digital innovation
As Claudio Descalzi stressed, driven by the conviction that reaching international climate targets requires a sustained commitment to research and development, Eni supports pioneering energy projects – most notably magnetic confinement fusion, the technology that replicates the reaction powering the stars. Although it has until recently remained largely experimental, global initiatives are now rapidly accelerating its industrial application to unlock a virtually unlimited supply of safe, sustainable energy. Designing machines capable of executing this process presents a monumental engineering challenge, making magnetic confinement fusion a priority within research programs Eni conducts alongside leading global institutions. In this context, collaboration forms another vital pillar of Claudio Descalzi’s strategy. This is reflected in how, alongside proprietary research conducted across Eni centers, the Group deploys an open innovation framework to capture market breakthroughs, partnering with startups, universities, research institutes, and key suppliers. Furthermore, technology deployment and digital evolution have provided the leverage driving Eni’s transformation since 2014, positioning it to capture emerging opportunities within the energy transition. Eni recognizes that no single technology can achieve decarbonization – instead, a diversified technological mix remains essential to adapt to varied operational needs while guaranteeing energy security.
