A large new data center development could be coming to northern Spain.

The Principality of Asturias this week announced the Digital Valley Asturias project, which will see a large data center campus built in the municipality of Salas.

The project will see €1.226 billion ($1.4bn) invested and the creation of 120 direct jobs and nearly 1,000 indirect jobs, officials said during a presentation attended by the president of the Principality, Adrián Barbón.

The campus will include ten data center modules, with a final computing capacity of 120MW, as well as an electrical substation and a photovoltaic installation consisting of 350 solar panels. The complex will occupy 154,585 square meters (1.66 million sq ft), of which 46,865 sqm (504,450 sq ft) will be allocated to facilities.

Construction will take place at the Nonaya Este industrial park between the second half of 2027 and 2030. During the construction phase, the project will employ up to 3,000 workers, according to Armando Layna, co-director of Digital Valley and Sales For You Consulting (S4U), a consulting company involved in the project.

Once operational, the center will have a direct workforce of about 120 people, in addition to approximately 960 indirect jobs linked to its operations.

Layna, a professional with extensive experience in digital infrastructure, described the event as “a very special day” and noted that the project—which he calls a “virtual campus”—has been in development for two years in collaboration with the Asturian government.

Layna emphasized that data centers, such as the one site for Salas, function as “large refineries of the digital economy” and described them as “silent” infrastructure, whose presence is only noticed when an incident occurs. He also sought to dispel some “myths” associated with this type of facility, such as water consumption, assuring that they use “the same amount as any closed-loop cooling system.”

The president of the principality, Barbón, expressed his satisfaction at being able to announce the investment and offered a political interpretation of the project, with implicit criticism of the opposition. He noted that Asturias “is a land of opportunities” and argued that “it is the companies that announce projects once they are ready,” in contrast to what he described as “showboating” on the part of other political leaders.

This piece was automatically translated from DCD’s Spanish site and edited by a member of DCD staff.