Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, is planning to invest €7.5bn ($8.2bn) to develop data centres in the Aragon region of northeastern Spain, further establishing the region as a key hub for cloud computing in Europe, according to a report by Reuters.
The US-based private equity firm joins tech giants including Microsoft and Amazon, in announcing significant investments in the area. The reports cites a spokesperson for the regional government as confirming, with 19 project proposals already submitted for approval, Zaragoza, the capital city of Aragon, has become a focal point for data centre development.
According to a spokesperson for Blackstone, the investment will focus on constructing the data centre buildings and equipping them with necessary infrastructure, such as cooling systems and cable networks, which will then be leased to companies looking to install their own servers.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a €6.69bn investment in data centres in Aragon, while Amazon’s cloud computing division, AWS, revealed in May that it would invest €15.7bn to build its own facilities in the region. Amazon also stated that its data centres would be powered by renewable energy, taking advantage of Aragon’s substantial wind power capacity.