The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, has met with senior executives from the companies that make up the recently formed public-private consortium which will develop Spain's first advanced artificial intelligence gigafactory.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, together with representatives of the companies |Pool Moncloa/Jorge Villar- 2026.7.1

The meeting was attended by the Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, Óscar López; the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Salvador Illa; the President of ACS, Florentino Pérez; the Chief Executive Officer of the Santander Group, Héctor Grisi; the Executive Chairman of Telefónica, Marc Murtra; and the Chief Executive Officer of Multiverse Computing, Enrique Lizaso; as well as the first senior executive to join the consortium and its Executive Director, Francesc Fajula.

The Spanish project, in which private investors hold a majority stake, is awaiting the launch of the European Commission's call for proposals to compete for one of Europe's major AI gigafactories, with a multi-site bid that includes locations in Móra la Nova (Tarragona), and San Fernando de Henares (Madrid), to house the technological infrastructure.

During the meeting, Pedro Sánchez emphasised that artificial intelligence is one of the technologies set to transform society most significantly in the coming decades, impacting areas such as employment, research, learning and interpersonal relationships. He urged continued efforts to build and govern strategic technologies, ensuring that Spain - through political ambition and investment - contributes to Europe leading in key technological fields, regaining competitiveness and strengthening its capacity to shape the digital future of both Spain and Europe.

In this regard, he conveyed the Government's firm support for the AI gigafactory project, with the aim of placing Spain at the forefront, through a €720 million public investment in the company, channelled via the Spanish Society for Technological Transition (SETT), which was approved last June using NextGenerationEU funds from the recovery plan. In addition to this, a voluntary contribution of €300 million, authorised by the Council of Ministers in June, is to be paid to the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC) in respect of services. Based in Luxembourg, this body is responsible for operating AI factories and promoting the establishment of, and access to, AI gigafactories within the European Union.

The head of the Executive also highlighted the importance of public-private partnership and the significance of the companies that make up the consortium, which are leaders in their respective sectors - Telefónica (with a 15.67% stake), ACS (15.67%), Banco Santander (15.67%), and Multiverse Computing (4%) - to a project spearheaded by the Government of Spain (SETT, 47.99% of the shares), alongside the Government of Catalonia (1%), which is expected to mobilise investments of up to €5 billion. The project will enable Spanish universities, SMEs, research centres and institutions to significantly increase their capacity to conduct research, innovate and strengthen Spain's competitiveness in the race for AI.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, and the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Administration, Óscar López, during the meeting they held with representatives of the companies| Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

This initiative strengthens Spain's AI ecosystem. Spain already has two AI centres linked to EuroHPC: the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC) and the Galician Supercomputing Centre (CESGA), both of which receive funding from the Government of Spain. It also includes the MareNostrum 5 quantum computer at the BSC, which has enabled, among other things, human genome simulations, the accelerated design of new drugs and the Digital Twin Earth project.

In this regard, the President of the Government of Spain highlighted Spain's European leadership in digitalisation and technology, thanks to one of the most advanced connectivity networks in Europe, the widespread deployment and availability of renewable energy, and cutting-edge centres such as the BSC, alongside a competitive talent ecosystem, with a growing number of graduates in STEM subjects, centres of research excellence, universities and world-class technology hubs.