The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked investor interest in data centers in several areas with growth potential that the market has identified: Madrid and Barcelona, mainly (although there are also powerful projects in Aragon, Bilbao and Lisbon). Technologies such as Meta, Google, Amazon or Oracle; companies such as Merlin Properties, or energy companies such as Iberdrola and Endesa are pouring into the emerging Iberian market.
A data center is a large physical infrastructure that houses computing and communications machines. It can host messaging conversations, applications, banking or insurance company information, among other services. A critical infrastructure, in short. José Guilleuma, director of Colliers' calculation centers, explains that it is also a market "intensive in electricity consumption, but natively sustainable and with efficiency written in its DNA".
Spain is today a market with enormous growth potential, but still far from the big leagues of computing centers: the United States (in Loudoun, Virginia, there is the largest center in the world, with more than 3,000 companies; it surpasses Silicon Valley in wealth), Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Ireland. In terms of installed capacity, at the end of 2024 a national supply of 190 MW will be reached in Madrid and 54 MW in Barcelona. In the French capital alone there is already capacity for 600 MW.
Spain is positioned in the investment sector as "the most interesting emerging market in the south of Europe", says Francisco Porras, of Merlin Properties, a society that has launched with force to build four large facilities. Faced with the saturation of other places, "our country meets the perfect conditions" to scale and become a great hub to be able to provide service to the rest of Europe, South America, Africa and the Middle East , add. According to the sector's employer, data centers will contribute 60,000 million to the national GDP in 2026. Today, companies have a global investment of around 15,000 million. The CB Insights consultancy calculates that in 2023 alone demand increased by 200%.
Barcelona is a market that investors have set their eyes on as it is one of the most growth potential in southern Europe. "The advantage is the submarine cable, the proximity to a large population center and the availability of power," explains Porres, referring to the Barcelona Cable Landing Station in Sant Adrià de Besòs. His society, Merlin, for example, has built a data center next to the port with a direct connection to the docking station and aspires to become the owner of technological giants. "The data center market is not built speculatively, so the main operators are fighting to reach agreements with the hyperscalers, that is to say, the big technology companies", explains Guilleuma. Other companies that have installed data centers are Panattoni, AQ Compute, Interxion, Nabiax, Adam, Equinix, Edge Connex or Atlas Edge, so that several poles have been created, between the city center and Cerdanyola del Vallès.
In Madrid, the market is more advanced. Some hyperscalers have been installed since the pandemic and have formed first-level availability zones. IBM, Google, AWS, Oracle and Microsoft form an area that includes the center of the capital, Alcobendas, Las Rozas and the Corredor d'Henares. Merlin, meanwhile, has already built its own data center in Getafe.
The business challenge for now lies in the production and distribution of renewable energy so that data centers can grow with guarantees. "It's the most energy-intensive market out there," says Merlin, and this requires "replanning the high-voltage network," adds Colliers.
It is an issue that the Ministry for Energy Transition and Networks is working on together with several energy companies, Iberdrola and Naturgy, in Madrid, and Endesa, with an active role in expanding power in Barcelona.
"We are all rowing to repower the Iberian market and be able to compete in better conditions with other countries", indicate the same sources. It is a country challenge. The investor is waiting for decisions to verify that Spain is in a position to scale and be up to the "Technology Formula 1", concludes Porras.
