Data Centers in Bulgaria

Bulgaria – Strategic Gateway to Southeastern Europe

Executive Summary

Bulgaria offers a compelling mix of low operational costs, strategic geography, and solid connectivity, making it an excellent choice for businesses targeting Southeastern Europe and the Balkans. The country provides a cost-effective alternative to more expensive Western European hubs for disaster recovery, content delivery, and regional service deployment. This balance allows companies to improve application performance for users across the region while managing their infrastructure budget effectively.

Bulgaria: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: With over 10 network providers and 30 data centers, Bulgaria has a competitive connectivity market, as of September 2025. The presence of multiple carrier-neutral facilities ensures resilient interconnection options for enterprises.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: There are no direct, in-country public cloud on-ramps from major providers. Businesses connect to cloud services like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure by procuring private network extensions (PNI or wave) to major European hubs such as Frankfurt, Vienna, or Istanbul.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): The primary internet exchange is BIX.bg (Bulgarian Internet Exchange), which facilitates low-latency traffic exchange between local and regional networks, improving performance for end-users in the country.

Bare Metal: Bare metal server availability is good, with providers like Leaseweb offering dedicated server solutions from facilities within Bulgaria, meeting demands for single-tenant, high-performance computing.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial power costs are highly competitive for Europe, averaging €0.09/kWh, as of August 2025. This attractive pricing significantly reduces the total cost of ownership for power-intensive deployments like AI training or high-performance computing clusters.

Power Grid Reliability: The Bulgarian power grid is stable, supported by a diverse energy mix dominated by nuclear power, which provides a reliable baseload. Major data center corridors, primarily in Sofia, are served by well-engineered infrastructure with substation redundancy to support critical uptime requirements.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Most data centers are concentrated in and around Sofia, the nation's capital and primary economic center. This proximity provides low-latency access for the city's thriving financial services, technology, and business process outsourcing industries.

Regional Market Reach: Bulgaria's strategic location makes it an ideal digital hub for the Balkan peninsula. It offers effective reach to neighboring markets including Romania, Greece, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Turkey, serving a combined population of over 50 million people with reduced latency.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: While there are no direct incentives for data centers, Bulgaria offers one of the most favorable general tax climates in the European Union. The country's flat 10% corporate income tax rate helps lower overall operational costs and creates a financially efficient environment for establishing a regional presence.

Natural Disaster Risk

Bulgaria has a Low overall natural disaster risk profile, with an INFORM Risk score of 2.6 out of 10, as of September 2025. While the aggregate risk is minimal, operators should engineer solutions to account for specific regional hazards.

The primary natural risks include:

• Earthquake: The most significant risk (6.2/10), with seismic activity concentrated in specific zones.
• River Flood: A notable risk (5.1/10) in areas adjacent to major river systems.
• Coastal Flood: A minor risk (2.9/10) for infrastructure located near the Black Sea coast.
• Drought: A lesser risk (2.8/10) that can impact water resources and power generation seasonally.