Amazon to spend €2.5B on data centres in Spain

Amazon has announced a plan to invest  €2.5B ($3.04 U.S.) to expand data centre offerings in northern Spain.

The company will spread the investment over the next decade, although they plan to open new data centre facilities in mid-2022. The €2.5B expenditure will cover capital expenses, operating expenses, equipment imports and employee salaries through 2031.

Amazon’s expansion strategy in Spain is focused on the northern Aragon region and includes a plan to hire 1,300 employees across the new facilities. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has had a presence in Spain since 2012 but intends to expand services there in response to growing demand in the area.

AWS first announced adding an availability zone in northern Spain in 2019, but only now updated the announcement to include a specific commitment of resources to the plan. The expansion of AWS services in Spain is intended to support data residency requirements and GDPR compliance, in addition to increased demand for services. Additionally, the company has been certified by the Esquema Nacional de Seguridad (ENS), meeting the highest levels of security and compliance requirements for Spanish public organizations and government agencies.

At the time of the initial announcement,  Peter DeSantis, Vice President of Global Infrastructure for AWS, discussed how the company’s investment would benefit the region, boosting the local economy and supporting cloud adoption while ensuring secure local data storage to protect user privacy and compliance with EU regulations. “Cloud computing is already powering innovation within businesses, educational institutions, public administrations, and government agencies across Spain,” he said. “And with this AWS infrastructure region, we look forward to helping accelerate this transformation.”

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez agreed, stating, “This investment from AWS will allow Spain to fully adapt to the digital transformation and develop as an international centre of innovation and technology.”

“We highly value AWS’s commitment to the technological development of Spain and the upskilling of our citizens.”

Spain isn’t Amazon’s only expansion target, however. The company also announced a plan to create three new Availability Zones in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which are expected to launch early next year. This will be Amazon’s second market in the Middle East, after the existing service region in Bahrain.