Microsoft founder Bill Gates held a private meeting in Madrid with the main Spanish and Portuguese utilities to prepare them for a significant data center buildout.

He also aimed to influence the design of the European Grids Package, a major reform of the EU’s electricity infrastructure.

Closed-door summit

The Four Seasons Hotel in Madrid was the venue chosen for the meeting, held under Chatham House rules, with the participation of executives from Iberdrola, Redeia, and EDP, as well as political representatives and investors linked to Breakthrough Energy and the Cleantech for Iberia coalition.

The meeting comes at a key moment for Microsoft, which is planning investments in data centers valued at around €20 billion in the Iberian Peninsula. The company has warned Brussels that delays in connecting to the grid could divert those investments to other markets.

Iberdrola was represented by Hugh Elliot, executive chairman of Iberdrola Energía Internacional, along with Beatriz Corredor, president of Redeia, and Miguel Stilwell, CEO of EDP, as well as Portuguese Energy Minister Maria da Graça Carvalho. The Spanish Minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, canceled her attendance due to the Adamuz train accident, which also forced the suspension of a planned meeting between Gates and President Pedro Sánchez.

European grids under pressure from data centers

At the center of the agenda was the European Grids Package, the regulatory package with which Brussels wants to accelerate the expansion and modernization of electricity grids to eliminate bottlenecks that are already slowing down industrial and data center projects in several countries. Big tech companies see this framework as critical: their data campuses are large consumers of electricity, require large-scale network upgrades, and face connection times that can exceed five years in some markets.

Microsoft has submitted formal comments on the European package, warning that bureaucracy and lack of network capacity could force it to redirect some of its more than 200 planned data centers to other locations with more agile processes.

At the meeting in Madrid, Gates laid out the investment and financing conditions he considers necessary to mobilize private capital for network projects in Spain and Portugal, with the aim of ensuring the viability of his future data hubs.

Regulatory oversight in Spain and Brussels

The summit is being held amid increasing regulatory scrutiny of the energy impact of data centers. In Spain, the Ministry for Ecological Transition is processing a royal decree that will require operators to report their electricity, water, renewable mix, and efficiency consumption and to rank among the top 15 percent of facilities in key indicators in order to obtain authorization and connection to the grid.

Brussels, for its part, is preparing additional measures to prevent “price bubbles and disruptions” in areas with a high concentration of data centers, inspired by the experience of the United States, where increases of up to 267 percent in the price of electricity have been recorded in the most stressed markets – however, how much of this cost increase is due to data centers is a matter of fierce debate.