Catalonia will mobilize €1 billion by 2030 in the Artificial Intelligence Strategy

BarcelonaThe Catalan government plans to allocate €1 billion by 2030 to Catalonia's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy. This was announced on Monday by the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, at the closing of the conference. Smart Catalonia: AI to transform the futurein the Torre Glòries. Among other actions, it plans to promote a sovereign public cloud, improve broadband connectivity across the region, promote new university degrees in AI, infrastructure for the development of chips for high-performance computing systems and AI, and reduce administrative processing times by up to 40%. The majority of the resources will come from the Catalan government, with a minimal portion being private capital.

Illa also explained that €60 million will be allocated to equip "digital infrastructures with greater capacity and intelligence, increasing operational efficiency by up to 20%," and another €200 million to guarantee fiber optic and 5G connectivity to cover the entire region. He also mentioned €40 million for "all stages of the educational pathway" to prepare "250 students in the medium term." This strategic plan is divided into eight pillars and 88 actions, 26 of which are considered key and account for more than 80% of the budget. This funding is budgeted despite the current budget extension, according to sources within the Catalan government. Illa indicated that this plan aims to "increase competitiveness, improve quality of life, and guarantee prosperity," with the goal of "leaving no one behind," and explained that the proposal will be submitted to the executive council this Tuesday. According to the Catalan government's calculations, this strategy would benefit more than 5,000 SMEs and self-employed individuals, and it aims to provide training to 30,000 public sector workers and 90,000 citizens. A sovereign cloud

The measure's key areas include infrastructure, talent, research, ethics, and the global projection of Catalan artificial intelligence. Regarding the latter, the Catalan government wants to diversify cloud service types and, therefore, will tender in 2026 for a specific cloud service "built in Catalonia" (budgeted at €120 million), so that "data does not leave" Catalonia, especially "the most critical data," according to sources within the executive branch.

This tool is a proposal from multicloud This will allow us to "maximize the opportunities of the artificial intelligence ecosystem safely." Priority will be given to the needs of sectors such as agri-food, mobility and transport, renewable energy, health and biomedicine, and tourism, among others.