Spanish data center firm Nabiax has begun construction on Alcalá Data Center 3 (ADC3) in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid. The company held a cornerstone ceremony last week for the facility, which will complete its Alcalá campus and represent an investment of nearly €800 million ($918m). The project will gradually add up to 100MW of IT capacity through 2029, with infrastructure designed to meet demand from hyperscale customers, cloud services, and artificial intelligence workloads.
With ADC3, Nabiax will reach 135MW of installed IT power in Spain, combining its Madrid campuses and facilities in Catalonia. The new facility will use a closed-loop cooling system and includes a collaboration with the University of Alcalá to promote scholarships, internships, and research. Nabiax CEO Pablo Ruiz-Escribano positioned the project within Spain's strategy to become a European digital hub, citing energy, connectivity, talent, and geographic location. The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, said Madrid currently has 58 data center projects, of which 41 are operational and 15 are under construction, with another 40 projects representing approximately €15 billion ($17.1bn) in investment.
The groundbreaking signals continued expansion for Nabiax, which Asterion Industrial Partners created in 2019 through the acquisition of 11 data centers from Telefónica. Telefónica later contributed three additional assets for a 20 percent stake in 2021. Nabiax sold its Latin American data centers to Actis in 2023, and Aermont acquired the company in 2024. The company also operates the 10MW Julián Camarillo Data Center near Madrid and the 1.3MW Terrassa facility outside Barcelona.
What remains unknown is the project's financing structure, specific customer commitments, and the timeline for each capacity phase beyond the 2029 completion target. The source also does not detail the expected power source mix or how the closed-loop cooling system will affect water and energy consumption compared with existing facilities.