MILAN (Reuters) - Microsoft plans to invest 4.3 billion euros ($4.8 billion) over the next two years to strengthen its artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud infrastructure in northern Italy, it said on Wednesday.

Microsoft said in a statement the investment would be the US company's largest in Italy to date. It will make the cloud region ItalyNorth one of the biggest Microsoft data centres in Europe, working as a data hub also for the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Microsoft Chairman Brad Smith met Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Wednesday, the PM's office said in a note, adding the government welcomed an investment that would strengthen Italy's digital role in the Mediterranean.

On Monday, Meloni met US fund BlackRock Inc chief Larry Fink, who travelled to Rome to discuss possible investments in data centres and to support energy infrastructure.

BlackRock and Microsoft announced last month a fund worth more than $30 billion to invest in AI-focused data centres, AI supply chains and energy sourcing, saying the vehicle would first look at the US market and then at US partner countries.

Demand for AI and cloud services is growing fast with firms in sectors as varied as gaming and e-commerce differentiating offerings through the integration of custom AI models - programs that employ pattern recognition to make decisions.