Amazon’s multi-billion dollar investment in Aragon will have resulted in the construction of 11 data centers by 2031

The development of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the data economy from Aragon is a fully realized and rapidly growing reality. As David Blázquez , the company’s Director of Institutional Relations for the Iberian Peninsula, stated this week, it is a tangible project under construction. The latest expansion announced by Jeff Bezos’s company’s technology subsidiary now confirms this definitive leap forward. The project aims to complete the construction of all 11 planned data centers in the region by 2031, following a cumulative investment of €33.7 billion, an unprecedented figure in Europe that solidifies the territory as one of the continent’s major digital hubs.

The most recent development came this week with the approval by the Aragonese Government Council of the Declaration of General Interest of Aragon ( DIGA ), the instrument that administratively unlocks the new phase of expansion for the cloud region of the multinational founded by Jeff Bezos. This is the third phase and the second expansion. The announcement, made weeks ago at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​is now taking shape on the ground: three new data centers that will bring the total to eleven and will finally reach the province of Teruel with the server to be installed in La Puebla de Híjar.

A DECADE OF EXPANSION

The story of Amazon’s arrival in Aragon can be told in three phases. The first, in 2019, with the company’s arrival under the leadership of Javier Lambán , resulted in three data centers in Villanueva de Gállego, El Burgo de Ebro, and Huesca (PLHUS), operational since 2022. The first step on the road.

The second phase , announced in 2024 with Jorge Azcón at the helm of the regional government, represented a major first step. AWS then planned five new infrastructures : two more in Villanueva de Gállego, two more in El Burgo de Ebro, and an additional one in Huesca (Walqa), very close to the existing one at the Huesca Logistics Platform. That expansion entailed an estimated investment of € 15.7 billion .

The third phase, now underway, completes the map. At least for now. It consists of three new data centers that not only increase capacity but also expand the geographic reach of the deployment. For the first time, the province of Teruel is included, along the N-232 highway, between the Las Ventas industrial park and the neighboring town of Azaila . This is in addition to a second center in Plhus (Huesca) and another in San Mateo de Gállego.

A PHASED IMPLEMENTATION UNTIL 2036

The timeline is now set. According to the approved plan, the basic infrastructure , administrative buildings, and auxiliary works necessary for the implementation of this new expansion will be ready by 2031. The complete development of the complexes will take place between 2031 and 2036.

Each of the projects also has a significant territorial dimension. In Huesca , the new center will occupy almost 47 hectares next to the existing one. In San Mateo de Gállego , the project covers 294 hectares and includes the reforestation of 72 hectares to create an ecological corridor. And in Teruel , the project will transform more than 328 hectares of land to accommodate the largest of the three facilities, located along the N-232 highway between La Puebla de Híjar and Azaila .

THE AMAZON EFFECT ON TECHNOLOGY IN ARAGON

Beyond the figures, the deployment of AWS has become— along with Microsoft —the main catalyst for the economic shift in Aragon. In just five years, the region has gone from being an energy exporter to positioning itself as a hub for the digital industry , with investments exceeding €100 billion in data centers announced in the last two years.

The ripple effect is clear. Riding the wave of Amazon’s success, other projects from investment funds and large companies ( Blackstone, ACS, Azora, etc. ) have arrived or been announced, consolidating the Zaragoza -Huesca axis as one of the main hubs in southern Europe and now opening the door to Teruel as well. All of this is happening in a context where the major challenge is no longer generating energy—Aragon produces more than twice what it consumes—but rather being able to connect it in time to this massive new demand that will lead the region to quadruple its energy needs at the beginning of the next decade, when AWS will also have its giant processing facilities built throughout Aragon.