AI Gigafactories: Spain joins the European race with a multi-site bid in Madrid and Tarragona

Spain is preparing to compete for one of them. The government has put together a multi-site bid, with facilities planned for Móra la Nova, in Tarragona, and San Fernando de Henares, in Madrid, backed by public and private investment and with the participation of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

AI Gigafactories will be large-scale supercomputing facilities designed to develop, train, and operate next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) models, which require enormous amounts of computing power, storage, and connectivity.

This call for proposals represents another step forward in a strategic issue for Europe: building its digital and technological sovereignty through its own infrastructure to develop and operate the most advanced AI models.

On July 30, 2026, the EU launched a call for proposals to establish up to seven AI Gigafactories. Proposals may be submitted through November 12, 2026, and the selection process is scheduled for early 2027.

Spain is preparing a multi-site bid involving Móra la Nova (Tarragona) and San Fernando de Henares (Madrid). On June 16, the Council of Ministers gave the green light to a 719 million euro investment through the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) to participate in the consortium promoting the bid.

The company promoting the bid combines public and private capital and plans to mobilize an investment of up to 5,000 million euros. Among the projects emerging as competitors are the French bids, Estonia’s bid, and a consortium led by Poland that also includes the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Hungary.

The call for proposals launched by EuroHPC marks a new step in the deployment of Europe’s AI infrastructure. The goal is to select the consortia responsible for building and operating up to seven AI Gigafactories, designed to offer computing capacity far superior to that of Europe’s current AI Factories.

The program plans to mobilize more than 30,000 million euros: up to 10,000 million in public funding from the EU and participating states, and at least 20,000 million in private investment. The proposed model is a public-private partnership.

The future AI Gigafactories will combine advanced processors, software, cloud services, storage, high-speed networks, and energy-efficient data centers. Each must incorporate, at a minimum, three to four times the number of advanced processors found in the most powerful European AI Factories, along with criteria for energy efficiency, water efficiency, and circularity.

The call for proposals will remain open until November 12, 2026. Selection is scheduled for early 2027, and the facilities should be able to begin operations approximately 18 months later.

Spain has chosen to submit a bid based on two complementary sites: Móra la Nova, in Tarragona, and San Fernando de Henares, in Madrid.

On June 16, the Council of Ministers authorized SETT to participate in a newly created company to operate the future gigafactory through a maximum investment of 719.85 million euros. Through this transaction, the public entity will become a shareholder in the company submitting the Spanish bid.

The bid is structured as a public-private partnership with the following shareholders:

• SETT: 47.99%
• Telefónica: 15.67%
• ACS: 15.67%
• Banco Santander: 15.67%
• Multiverse Computing: 4%
• Generalitat de Catalunya: 1%

The bid thus brings together public and private funding, telecommunications, infrastructure, financial capacity, and technological expertise to compete for one of Europe’s new major AI infrastructure projects. The Spanish project is expected to mobilize an investment of up to 5,000 million euros.

In addition, Spain and Portugal are exploring the possibility of submitting a joint bid to the European program, an option that has yet to be finalized.

The selection of Móra la Nova, in the Ribera d’Ebre region, as one of the two sites places the project within a broader Catalan technology strategy.

In July 2026, the Catalan government approved the Generalitat de Catalunya’s Technology Autonomy Strategy (ESTRATEC), designed to strengthen the technological autonomy and resilience of public services and reduce external technological dependencies.

This initiative ties in with the Catalunya AI 2030 Strategy, approved in November 2025, which plans to mobilize 1 billion euros by 2030. Among its actions, it specifically includes promoting gigafactories and AI factories and supporting the bid to establish a gigafactory in Móra la Nova.

ESTRATEC and Catalunya AI 2030 are, therefore, two distinct frameworks that converge in the development of strategic infrastructure to strengthen Catalonia’s technological capacity.

The project has also made progress on the infrastructure front. On July 21, the Catalan government approved the acquisition of an additional 20 MW of electrical power to ensure the energy needed for the first phase of the planned facility in Móra la Nova and Tivissa.

Spain will compete with other European projects that are also seeking to strengthen their own advanced computing capabilities.

Estonia, one of Europe’s leading countries in the digitization of public services and home to a robust digital ecosystem, is participating in the new EuroHPC joint procurement and plans to acquire up to 20 million euros in computing capacity from a future branch of an AI Gigafactory located within its territory.

Competition for the AI Gigafactories is shaping up to be intense. France already has two projects that have announced their intention to compete: the AION consortium, comprising Ardian, Artefact, Bull, Capgemini, EDF, Iliad, Orange, and Scaleway; and ÆTHER, which plans to establish its first campuses in the Strasbourg region.

In Central and Eastern Europe, Poland is leading a consortium that also includes the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Hungary.