Madrid has 165 MW of installed capacity in data centres, making it the second-largest European market outside the FLAP-D core (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin), behind only Milan, with 230 MW. According to the EMEA Mid-Year Data Centre Report 2026, compiled by JLL, the Spanish capital outstrips Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Warsaw at a time when difficulties in developing new facilities in the main European hubs are driving activity towards other locations.
The five major markets account for 3.8 GW of operational capacity, more than double the figure for 2019, but constraints on the electricity grid, a shortage of land, planning restrictions and lengthy connection times are limiting their scope for growth. This pressure is creating opportunities for destinations with greater capacity for expansion, a category in which the consultancy firm includes Spain.
Access to energy and the availability of land have become decisive factors in attracting investment, alongside the ability to deliver projects within the timeframes required by operators. “Artificial intelligence is redefining investment in data centres and raising the bar when it comes to deploying capital,” says Alberto Martull, Head of Corporate Capital Markets and Data Centres at JLL Spain.
The analysis also highlights the support provided by national and regional governments for the development of this infrastructure and for digitalisation. Among the initiatives planned in the country is AWS’s €15.7 billion investment programme in Aragón, one example of the scale these projects are now reaching.
Added to these conditions is the difference in the cost of sites. According to JLL, land with available electrical power costs, on average, 2.3 times more in primary European markets than in secondary ones, and four times more than in tertiary markets – a gap that encourages the search for locations outside established urban centres.
Artificial intelligence is changing the scale and location of projects
The demands of artificial intelligence are altering the criteria for data centre development. Their workloads require larger facilities, more electrical power and faster delivery times, leading developers to seek larger plots of land and power supply capacity further away from urban centres.
The new hyperscale campuses planned for 2026–2028 will be located, on average, 175 kilometres from major urban centres, compared with 46 kilometres for those due to be completed between 2022 and 2025. At the same time, the proportion of undeveloped ‘greenfield’ sites in the portfolio of new projects will rise from 8 per cent to 39 per cent, as a result of increased land and energy requirements.
The scale of projected expenditure reflects this shift. The four major global cloud service providers expect to invest approximately $725 billion in 2026, 77 per cent more than the $410 billion invested in the previous financial year, according to the report.
JLL estimates that artificial intelligence will account for around half of global data centre capacity by 2030. This trend places energy availability and long-term growth prospects at the heart of location and investment decisions.
