US asset manager Blackstone is looking to expand its planned project to build data centres in Spain's Aragon, with an additional investment of €4.3 billion in the region striving to become a major cloud computing hub.

Documents filed with the regional government showed that aside from an initial investment of €7.5 billion over nine years that was disclosed in 2024, the world's largest alternative asset manager plans a second phase to add capacity at the same site, depending on demand from customers, according to a report from Reuters.

The second phase would take seven years to be completed, the company said in the documents.

Blackstone follows tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon in choosing the northeastern region, which has around 20 data centre projects under evaluation.

The first phase would start in the second quarter of 2026, the document said. It would comprise eight data centres, an electricity substation, a photovoltaic power plant and connections to the grid.

The company said it had signed renewable electricity supply contracts for all its needs and its cooling systems will not use water, a commodity that is often in short supply in Spain.

The expansion represents a significant vote of confidence in Spain's growing position as a European data centre hub, with the Aragon region positioning itself to attract major technology investments through favourable conditions and infrastructure development.

The total potential investment of nearly €12 billion across both phases would make this one of the largest data centre developments in Europe, highlighting the growing demand for cloud computing infrastructure as digital transformation accelerates across industries.

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