The power of collaboration in the northern Netherlands

Building the digital future — here and now

In the northern Netherlands, digitalisation is not just talked about — it is being built. At Promotiedagen 2025, northern IT companies demonstrated on the IT-Plein how technology, collaboration, and infrastructure are shaping the digital future together.

From artificial intelligence to fibre: the north is proving that progress begins with collaboration.

The AI Factory

Groningen is building the AI Factory: a national centre where businesses, researchers, and governments will collaborate on the development and application of artificial intelligence. This positions the northern Netherlands as a key contributor to the digital future of the Netherlands.

The Cloud of the North

In the Cloud of the North, more than 200 northern parties are collaborating on a sovereign, sustainable digital cloud and the infrastructure to support it. Technology companies building the hardware, legal professionals, and organisations seeking their own independent cloud all play a role. By sharing knowledge and capacity, a regional network emerges that is independent of the larger, non-European technology giants.

Duocast Connect+

Between Groningen and Amsterdam, Duocast Connect+ provides the most powerful, immediately available fibre connection in the northern Netherlands. Two fully separate routes, low in latency and built for the continuous transport of large volumes of data. The connection, built with the most modern European equipment, is ready for the AI initiatives of the future and other major data-producing services that simply cannot afford to go down.

The strength of collaboration in the north

The IT sector in the northern Netherlands draws its strength from collaboration. Technology is not seen as an end in itself but as a means to jointly build a reliable, sustainable, and sovereign digital future. Businesses, knowledge institutions, and governments work together to develop and apply technology locally. This regional collaboration generates not only innovation, but also reliable and sustainable digital infrastructure — and that is a key precondition for growth.