Spain's €5 billion AI 'gigafactory' is the centrepiece of its new AI plan, and it still has to win a European competition

Spain's new AI plan targets 100,000 AI accelerators by 2028 or 2029 in a gigafactory that is still a bid in a European call closing on 12 November.

25 September 2026 · 4 min read · Band Rules and society · The Pulse, 21 September 2026

What happened

Spain's government has published IA360, a plan for artificial intelligence with eight areas of work to be carried out in 2026 and 2027. Its first and largest project is an AI 'gigafactory': a very large computing centre for training and running AI models, backed by €5 billion of public and private investment. The plan's target is 100,000 AI accelerators, the specialised chips that do AI's heavy maths, operating in 2028 or 2029, which it calls the largest computing infrastructure in southern Europe. The milestones it sets are construction starting in February 2027 and opening in 2028.

The plan also sets out a €600 million call, open to businesses before the end of 2027 after a pilot in the first half of that year, with a target of 25,000 companies putting AI into their work. And it describes a draft royal decree that would put energy, water and land use at the centre of deciding which data-centre projects come first.

Why it matters

The gigafactory is not yet Spain's to build. Moncloa.com, a private Spanish news site unrelated to the government's own lamoncloa.gob.es, reports that it is Spain's bid in a call run by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, the EU body that pools money for shared supercomputers. The call closes on 12 November 2026, other member states are bidding for the same funds, and the facility has not been awarded. The February 2027 construction date applies only if the bid succeeds.

The plan's own numbers show why Spain wants it. It says the world already has more than 29 gigawatts of computing capacity for AI, which it compares to about three quarters of peak electricity demand in mainland Spain in 2025. It also says requests from data centres for access to Spain's grid far exceed the 2.5 gigawatts of data-centre demand it expects by 2030, and that meeting all of them would mean grid reinforcements paid for by every citizen. The gigafactory is the plan's route to computing capacity Spain can call its own; the royal decree is its route to choosing which data-centre projects come first.

Spain is not starting from nothing. The plan says the country already runs two AI factories, at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and at CESGA, and ranks seventh in the world and second in Europe on Stanford University's index of AI dynamism, up from 31st in 2019. Its stated aim is the world's top five.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez put the stakes in political terms at the launch. 'If AI is concentrated in a few companies and a handful of countries, its impact on shared prosperity, on the very idea of democracy, will be devastating,' he said, as reported by El Español.

What would change it

Two things decide whether the gigafactory keeps to the plan's timetable: the result of the EuroHPC call after it closes on 12 November, and the private half of the €5 billion. Moncloa.com reports that the private half is not yet confirmed and that the accelerators depend on a handful of international manufacturers. It adds that a delay in the award, or a change in budget priorities, would leave the announcement as a headline without a building.

What we do not know

The plan does not name a site for the gigafactory or a supplier for its accelerators. The date by which the EuroHPC call will be decided is not given in the plan or in the Spanish reporting on it.

What this changes for you

For now, nothing. If Spain wins the call and the private money is found, the plan's milestones point to building from February 2027 and an opening in 2028, and Spanish businesses could apply for help from the €600 million call before the end of 2027.

Sources

Everything above is written from these. Each line says what that document proves.

1. lamoncloa.gob.es: Spain's plan document, IA360: the €5 billion public-private gigafactory, the target of 100,000 AI accelerators in 2028 or 2029, construction from February 2027 and opening in 2028, the €600 million business call before the end of 2027 and its 25,000-company target, the draft royal decree on data centres, the 29 GW and 2.5 GW figures, the two AI factories at BSC and CESGA, and Spain's seventh place on Stanford's AI dynamism index.
2. elespanol.com: El Español, 22 September 2026: the gigafactory's construction from February 2027 and opening in 2028, and Pedro Sánchez's warning at the launch about AI concentrated in a few companies and countries.
3. moncloa.com: Moncloa.com, 21 September 2026, a private outlet unrelated to the government's lamoncloa.gob.es: the gigafactory as Spain's bid in a EuroHPC call closing on 12 November 2026, not yet awarded, with other member states bidding; the private half of the €5 billion not yet confirmed; the €600 million call's pilot in the first half of 2027.

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