The Government hands over land for the AI ​​gigafactory in Tarragona: without expropriations and on a fast track.

The Government has approved a declaration of institutional support for the bid to host an artificial intelligence (AI) gigafactory in Morá la Nova (Ribera d'Ebre) .

The proposal, promoted by a public-private consortium led by the Government and Telefónica and with an investment of between 3 and 5 billion euros, proposes locating it on a site owned by the Catalan Land Institute (Incasòl) . This means that no land expropriation would be required and construction could be carried out on a "fast track" basis, a determining factor for gaining ground given the European Commission's rush to compete with the United States in this field, according to industry sources. Another determining factor has been the electrical capacity available in the area and the future Escatrón-Els Aubals-La Secuita line.

The Regional Minister for Territory, Housing, and Ecological Transition and spokesperson for the Catalan government , Sílvia Paneque , highlighted the importance of the project for Catalonia. "It is the largest investment in artificial intelligence in the entire state and must serve to boost the digital ecosystem we already have in Catalonia," she noted in a statement issued by the Generalitat.

Paneque expressed the Generalitat's confidence that Brussels will favor this candidacy. "It's a clear and solid proposal from the Catalan government, worked on with the Spanish government and supported by President [Salvador] Illa," he said. Brussels' choice will not be known until the end of the first quarter of 2026.

Tarragona is a strategic enclave close to the AI ​​Factory—a national center for AI experimentation—and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), a leading European hub for high-performance computing.

Among the already confirmed members of the consortium are, in addition to Telefónica, ACS, MasOrange, Nvidia, Submer, Multiverse Computing , as well as the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) , better known as 'SEPI Digital' and dependent on the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Civil Service. The government also confirms that negotiations are underway to bring in a major international investment partner. Furthermore, if selected, the project will receive a significant public subsidy from the European Commission through the InvestAI program .