As part of CEO Satya Nadella’s commitment to fostering digital innovation and the appropriate use of AI, Microsoft intends to double its investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud infrastructure in Spain, spending €1.95 billion ($2.1 billion) there in the next two years.

The president of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, met with Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, to discuss the company’s largest investment in Spain in its nearly 40 years of existence.

Smith is traveling throughout Europe to promote Microsoft’s financial commitments there. He declared last week that over a two-year period, he would spend €3.2 billion in Germany on data center infrastructure and AI.

Microsoft has announced plans to construct a data center campus in Aragon that would service European businesses and government agencies, and it will shortly create a cloud area of data centers close to Madrid. With the aid of these two infrastructures, Microsoft’s cloud services will be able to provide security, privacy, and data sovereignty. Additionally, businesses and government agencies will have access to the full range of AI solutions offered by the corporation.

An IDC estimate suggests that throughout the 2026–2030 decade, Microsoft’s data centers in Spain might generate up to €8.4 billion in GDP and 69,000 indirect jobs.

A Tactical Partnership

Sánchez and Smith outlined a framework of collaboration that includes the investment pledge. Together, the two will advance responsible AI application to improve citizen services, AI-based innovation, national cybersecurity, and the cyber-resilience of Spanish businesses, government agencies, and vital infrastructure.

The strategic alliance is based on four main axes: expanding the use of AI in administration; encouraging responsible AI; bolstering national cybersecurity; and, lastly, enhancing the cyber-resilience of businesses. It has been defined in accordance with Spain’s national AI strategy and national cybersecurity strategy.

In order to modernize administrative procedures and give public workers the AI tools they need to be more productive and efficient, they will exchange best practices. From the administration’s perspective, this will include preparations for generative AI solution deployment and civil servant AI training. Microsoft will provide the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA) with its responsible AI design guidelines, implementation manuals, and extra material on best practices in this field in the meantime.

Additionally, Microsoft and the National Cryptologic Center of the National Intelligence Center (CNI-CCN) will work together to investigate ways to enhance early warning and response mechanisms to computer security incidents in public administrations, with the goal of bolstering national cybersecurity and, specifically, the cyber resilience of critical infrastructures. The IT company will also work with the National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE), providing worldwide information and telemetry on potential threats and cyberattacks that could impact public institutions and companies in Spain. There will also be coordinated cybersecurity education initiatives launched, targeting citizens and small and medium-sized businesses.