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Nabiax commits €800m to Alcalá megawatts that arrive in phases through 2029
The cornerstone at Alcalá de Henares starts a build that adds up to 100MW of IT capacity in stages through 2029. Nabiax runs about 33MW in Spain today, so most of the 135MW it will hold there is still a construction schedule.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- Nabiax laid the cornerstone for Alcala Data Center 3, the building that completes its campus at Alcala de Henares outside Madrid.
- The facility will gradually add up to 100MW of IT capacity through 2029, built for hyperscale customers, cloud services and AI workloads, at an investment of nearly 800 million euros.
- Nabiax says ADC3 takes it to 135MW of installed IT power in Spain, counting its Madrid campuses together with its facilities in Catalonia.
- Isabel Diaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, said the region has 58 data center projects, 41 of them operational and 15 under construction, with 40 more in a portfolio of about 15 billion euros.
- The project includes a collaboration with the University of Alcala on scholarships, internships and research, meant to keep locally trained staff in digital infrastructure.
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Why it matters
- constraint A tenant that needs megawatts next year is negotiating over one phase of ADC3, so the month a given phase energises governs its plan more than the 100MW total does.
- exposure Until leases are signed, the owner carries the absorption risk on a nine-figure build whose customers exist on the record as categories.
- precedent An operator asking regulators to treat financed, licensed, under-construction projects differently hands any future Spanish restriction a ready-made dividing line, and it pays off for whoever broke ground first.
Count what Nabiax runs in Spain now. The first two buildings on the Alcalá campus, opened in 2013 and 2022, hold 22MW between them [5]. Julián Camarillo near Madrid adds 10MW, and Terrassa outside Barcelona 1.3MW, for 33.3MW installed [6][15]. Add the new building's 100MW and the total comes to 133.3MW, near the 135MW Nabiax puts on completion [16]. About three quarters of that 2029 figure is still a construction schedule [17].
Nearly €800 million for up to 100MW works out at roughly €8m per MW of IT capacity [2][18]. The 40-project portfolio Díaz Ayuso described, at about €15 billion, averages €375m a project [12][20]. Nine years separated ADC1 from ADC2, for 22MW combined; ADC3 promises up to 100MW in phases through 2029 [19][3].
ADC3 will use a closed-loop cooling system, and its intended customers are described by category [7][3]. DCD's report does not name a tenant or a pre-lease for the building [21]. Nabiax has published a commitment and a schedule [21].
Speaking at the ceremony, Ruiz-Escribano asked for a legal distinction between mature projects, with approved financing, obtained licenses or construction already underway, and new developments [10]. "The challenge is not choosing between sustainability and growth; the challenge is ensuring they go hand in hand," he said [9]. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, said: "Data centers are not a problem, but rather part of the solution and an opportunity that we certainly intend to take advantage of" [11].
That definition is a screen for a tenant reading any pipeline megawatt: approved financing, license issued, construction started [10]. ADC3 answers yes on all three [1]. A phased build needs a fourth line on the screen, the year the specific phase a tenant wants energises, because that is the date the tenant occupies. The counterparty deserves the same check: Asterion assembled Nabiax in 2019 from 11 Telefónica data centers, Actis bought the Latin American portfolio in 2023, and Aermont bought the company in 2024 [22][13].
What to watch
- Whether Nabiax names an anchor tenant for the first ADC3 phase, and the size of the block it takes.
- Whether Spain or the Community of Madrid writes Ruiz-Escribano's mature-versus-new distinction into permitting rules, and what qualifies as mature.
- Whether the 15 Madrid projects already under construction publish per-phase energisation dates tenants can sign against.