that one of the European AI gigafactories ends up in Spain
If the European Union wants to compete with the United States and China (which has a very detailed plan) in the artificial intelligence race, you don’t just need good models and specialized companies: you also need AI gigafactories. And the EU already has on its roadmap the construction of up to five plants throughout the continent. Where will they be mounted? The decision has not yet been made, but one thing is clear: Spain has submitted his candidacy in the form of a binomial between Madrid and Catalonia. The Madrid – Catalonia proposal. This candidacy combines the storage capacity and the Madrid network with the experience in Catalan computing architecture. On the other hand, the Spanish state has one of the most solid renewable energy networks on the old continent, a critical requirement for approval. Thus, it is based on a Madrid – Catalonia axis that connects the Barcelona Supercomputing Center with a new node in San Fernando de Henares (Madrid) and the previously planned massive installation of Móra la Nova (Tarragona), which would take advantage of the area’s energy infrastructure. What does a factory have to be “giga”? Last February Ursula Von der Leyen announced InvestAI, a project that will mobilize 200 billion euros for artificial intelligence, of which a fund of 20 billion will go to gigafactories, which are essentially large data centers with at least 100,000 advanced AI chips. The fundamental differences between a simple AI factory and a gigafactory according to the action plan are scale and purpose: while a factory is a supercomputing center optimized for fine-tuning AI models to specific tasks, a gigafactory is a much more powerful massive infrastructure designed to train models from scratch. At the hardware level there are also differences: the EU standard for factories is around 25,000 chips. Furthermore, while factories are often integrated into existing data centers, such as MareNostrum 5 in Barcelona, for gigafactories they usually require their own They require their own high-power electrical substation. The list of requirements. The construction of up to five gigafactories in the EU is part of the action plan “AI Continent” from the European Commission. At the beginning of this year and after some delay, the formal call for proposals has already been opened. Regarding the requirements, the proposals must guarantee a capacity of more than 100,000 next-generation chips and the redundant architecture is positively valued, advanced liquid cooling systems, total sustainability and the capacity of a dedicated high-power electrical substation are required. Majority control must be European capital, although the financing model is public-private. Deadlines and budgets. If the EU approves the project in the coming months, construction would begin in 2027 to be operational between 2027 and 2028. As detailed Óscar López, Minister for Digital Transformation and the Public Service, “the joint public-private investment could exceed 4,000 million euros to make this gigafactory a reality.” The public part of the financing would come, among others, from the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation. In Xataka | If we ask Spaniards how they feel about AI, the answer is simple: more productive In Xataka | If anyone thought that Europe had no role in the race for AI, Mistral has something to tell them Cover | chaddavis.photography and Daria Borysenko
