Spain Bets Another €300 Million to Win Europe's AI Supercomputer Race

Spain’s government approved an additional €300 million on Tuesday to build a European “gigafactory” for artificial intelligence (AI). This is a giant supercomputing center with thousands of advanced chips, designed to train and run top-level AI models on an industrial scale. The new investment follows last week’s approval of €719 million to create a public-private company for the project. In total, Spain has now committed over €1 billion to compete for part of the €20 billion that the European Union (EU) will distribute among three to five such gigafactories across member countries. The project will have two locations: Móra la Nova (Tarragona) and San Fernando de Henares (Madrid). The EU’s goal is to boost both commercial use and research in AI, reducing Europe's reliance on foreign technology. “These gigafactories are much more than data centers,” said Óscar López, Spain’s Minister for Digital Transformation. “They will be large research hubs and generators of wealth around AI.” He added that the aim is to “democratize access” to advanced AI, making it available not only to big companies but also to small and medium-sized businesses. The €719 million from last week covers 48% of the consortium’s capital. The main private partners—Telefónica, ACS, and Banco Santander—each hold 15.67%, adding up to 47%. A startup called Multiverse Computing, based in San Sebastián, will hold 4%. This startup develops software to make AI models more efficient, cutting costs and energy use. The private sector will control 51% of the consortium, giving it effective control. The government also approved an extra €107 million to increase its stake in Multiverse Computing, following an earlier €52 million investment. Additionally, it invested €24.5 million in Attypics Photonics, a company from Valencia that is developing chips that use light (photons) instead of electricity to process data, aiming to increase speed and reduce energy consumption. The European Commission is expected to launch the official call for gigafactory proposals in the coming weeks. “Spain’s candidacy is ready, and we will be one of the first gigafactories,” López said confidently.