European Commission approves AI Gigafactory joint venture in Spain

The European Commission has authorized a new joint venture intended to develop artificial intelligence infrastructure as part of a bid for the European AI Gigafactories program. The consortium represents a public-private partnership involving Telefónica, ACS, Banco Santander, and the Sociedad Española para la Transformación Tecnológica (SETT).

Under the ownership structure, the Spanish public sector through SETT holds 48% of the capital. Telefónica, ACS, and Banco Santander each hold 15.67%, while Multiverse Computing holds 4% and the Generalitat de Catalunya holds the remaining 1%. The joint venture will primarily operate in the Spanish market, providing colocation services for third-party data centers.

José Marino García, an executive from SETT, has been appointed president of the promoting company. Alfredo Serret of Telefónica and Daniel Barriuso of Santander will serve as vice presidents. The project aims to aggregate industrial, financial, and infrastructural expertise to support the Iberian candidacy for the European computing capacity initiative.