Aragon Secures $67.5B Data Center Boom as Spain Slashes AI Permitting Red Tape

The sparsely populated region of Aragon in northeast Spain is set to receive €60 billion ($67.55 billion) in data center and digital infrastructure investments over the next decade. Tech companies are flocking to the area due to a "Project of General Interest of Aragon" (PIGA) status, which slashes approval times from years to under 12 months and facilitates local tax breaks and land expropriations. Amazon is investing $38.4 billion in the region for cloud services and AI infrastructure, representing its largest investment of this kind outside the United States. Microsoft is also fast-tracking up to €10 billion in regional data center investments, while Spanish property company Merlin Properties is pushing forward a €1.2 billion project. Critics argue the expedited process severely undermines public scrutiny, noting that citizens were given only 23 days to review approximately 25,000 pages of Amazon's project documentation. Spain's central government has drafted tougher water and electricity rules for data centers in response to surging energy demands, putting the multi-billion-euro investments at risk ahead of a November 29 snap election. "Are we overlooking any requirements for the sake of speed? The answer is no." — Eva Valle