Microsoft Expands AI with Billion-Dollar Investment in Spain
Microsoft is set to expand its AI infrastructure in Spain with a US$2.1bn investment.
The company states that it will expand its AI and cloud infrastructure over the next two years, according to what the company’s Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said in a post on social media site X (formerly Twitter).
The decision comes shortly after Microsoft announced a 3.2 billion euros (US$3.45bn) AI-focused investment in Germany over the next two years to keep businesses future-ready and boost workforce skills. It highlights the company’s mission to further expand AI and cloud-based services across Europe.
Working to dominate the AI data centre market
Microsoft has been working towards building a data centre region in the Greater Madrid area, supporting local initiatives and programmes around sustainability, inclusive economic growth and digital skills building.
The company has been investing in Spain for nearly 40 years and in 2021 announced a new research and development hub for AI technologies in Barcelona.
This news comes in the wake of Microsoft revealing that it planned to invest billions into AI data centres at the end of 2023.
In fact, the tech giant announced a £2.5bn (US$3.16bn) investment into the UK to build AI infrastructure, with the hope of building more data centres and GPUs. These plans were also aimed at increasing skills and improving security.
Microsoft is also expected to be one of the companies to dominate the AI market as the cost of computing continues to rise.
“Our investment is beyond just building data centres, it’s a testament to our 37-year commitment to Spain, its security and development and digital transformation of its government, businesses, and people,” says Brad Smith.
During a time of huge digital transformation, the data centre industry is frequently looking for new ways to innovate in order to grow its capacity to handle more AI and meet customer demands. In facilitating this type of growth, Microsoft has also aimed to lead on AI being developed and deployed in a responsible and ethical way.
The company also joins its competitor tech giants also seeking to expand their European investments to develop AI. In particular, Google is working to grow its data centre presence across the continent in order to capitalise on new technologies.
Likewise, UiPath is set to grow its AI services, having announced new features designed to better enable developers to build, test and accelerate implementing automation into a business.
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