The Spanish government and the Generalitat expand the gigafactory project in Móra d'Ebre in Madrid

BarcelonaThe Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Administration, Óscar López, announced this Wednesday that the government will include Madrid in a joint bid with Catalonia for the European Gigafactory for Artificial Intelligence (AI), a project that could mobilize an investment of around 4 billion euros and that It must be carried out in Móra la Nova (Ebro River Basin). Sources from the Catalan government, which initially promoted the project, confirmed that the Catalan administration is working to expand the project to the Community of Madrid.

"I am pleased to announce that the Spanish government will include Madrid alongside Catalonia to build a strong bid for the next generation of AI gigafactories in Europe. In times of deliberate division, this territorial partnership demonstrates our commitment to making Spain an unstoppable champion of AI within the European Union," stated the Minister of Economy, Finance, and Public Credit, in a meeting held this Wednesday in the Spanish capital, according to statements reported by EFE.

In this regard, the Ministry of Economy has detailed that the funding will be implemented through a public-private consortium that includes, among others, the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT), known as SEPI Digital. "The joint public-private investment could exceed 4 billion euros to make this gigafactory a reality. I am convinced that Spain will achieve this and become home to one of the first gigafactories in Europe, because we are full of vision and ambition," López added. The announcement made this Wednesday means that, in addition to the already decided location of Móra la Nova, the Madrid municipality of San Fernando de Henares will be included in the project that Pedro Sánchez's government will submit to the competition that the European Commission plans to launch shortly to select at least four facilities in different member states. The project, which will have to compete with 75 other proposals from the 27 countries that make up the European Union, was initially led by the Spanish government, the Catalan government, and Telefónica.

Sources within the Catalan government have admitted to ARA that the Catalan government is "working with the Spanish government to ensure Madrid also participates in this bid in order to strengthen it," with the aim of "promoting a strategic bid in southern Europe with a high probability of success." "The objective, from Catalonia, is to contribute to a winning and indisputable final bid that goes beyond the initial ambition in terms of total computing capacity for the project," they insist. "This implies that the newly constructed site in Móra la Nova, proposed as the hub for the gigafactory, will be reaffirmed as the cornerstone of the bid, and will be complemented by other nodes to provide greater computing capacity for the project," the same sources add. However, the government points out that the Commission has not yet issued the call for proposals for the project.

The selected gigafactories must be operational between 2027 and 2028 and will be eligible for EU funding. "AI gigafactories are a flagship project promoted by the European Commission to provide the continent with strategic infrastructure that strengthens its technological autonomy and positions the European Union at the forefront of developing sovereign, sustainable, and high-performance AI capabilities," explained the Spanish government. Specifically, these are large-scale facilities dedicated to the development and training of next-generation AI models containing trillions of parameters. Therefore, they bring together the computing power of nearly one hundred thousand advanced AI processors, with a special emphasis on energy capacity, reliable supply chains, advanced networks, energy efficiency, and AI-driven automation.