Microsoft announces the largest investment in its history in Spain for AI infrastructure | Technology
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Brad Smith, President of Microsoftsigned a collaboration agreement today in Madrid that plans to quadruple investments in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and cloud in Spain during the years 2024 and 2025, until reaching 2,100 million dollars (approximately 1,950 million euros). This is Microsoft’s largest investment in Spain in its 37 years of presence in the country.
The company announced in a note that it plans to soon open a data center cloud region located in the Community of Madrid and announced its intention to build a data center campus in Aragon that will provide services to businesses and European public entities. These two infrastructures, says the company, “will make it possible to make the company’s entire range of artificial intelligence solutions available to Spanish and European companies and public administrations”.
The collaboration is established within the framework of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and the National Cybersecurity Strategy defined by the Spanish Government, and is structured around four lines of action. The first steps are that with the use of AI: the acquisition includes the extension of the use of artificial intelligence in public administration, including the training of functionalities, and the promotion of the use of responsible AI, in which Microsoft collaborates with there Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA).
A third point of this agreement concerns the strengthening of national cybersecurity and in particular the cyber-resilience of critical infrastructures. Microsoft and the National Cryptological Center of the National Intelligence Center (CNI-CCN) “They will jointly explore,” specifies the agreement, the improvement of early warning and response mechanisms to computer security incidents in public administrations. And a fourth point consists of improving this IT resilience in companies. “Microsoft will collaborate with the National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE), providing access to telemetry and global information on potential threats and cyberattacks that could affect Spanish businesses and public administrations,” the company says. Furthermore, joint dissemination actions will be implemented in the field of cybersecurity, aimed at SMEs and citizens.
Brad Smith, visiting Spain, explains to EL PAÍS that this agreement is part of a strategy aimed at providing Spain, both in administration and in businesses, with strategies to be able to face the AI revolution. According to the executive, Spain is one of the countries where AI is most used, but jobs are not generated to the same extent. “There are some things that are really interesting,” Smith reflects. “Between the third and fourth quarters of last year, we saw that the use of generative AI by organizations across Spain increased more than fivefold in a single quarter. So we are literally seeing an explosion of AI adoption across the entire Spanish economy. Our investment of 2.1 billion in just two years is trying to meet the needs of the country.”
Smith explains that the idea of his company is to help Spain “because it is not too early to prepare for the year 2030. What will happen by 2030? Doctors are going to retire, civil servants in the public administration, where the average age of employees is 58, are going to retire. The economy will lose all these talents. How are you going to replace it? If it fails to do so, GDP growth will come under even greater pressure. But even more, the quality of life here will be threatened.”
The executive assures that part of the solution lies in the use of AI: “The only way to reduce the pressure, in my opinion, is to create the jobs of the future and allow people to occupy them. And the power of AI is also very relevant in this regard, because it lowers the barriers to entry: it makes it easier for someone to become a cybersecurity professional and it allows someone to write software more easily,” he says.
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