Blackstone plans $5 bln expansion of Spanish data centre project

MADRID, Aug 27 (Reuters) - U.S. asset manager Blackstone BX.N is looking to expand its planned project to build data centres in Spain's Aragon, with an additional investment of 4.3 billion euros ($5.03 billion) in the region striving to become a major cloud computing hub.

Documents filed with the regional government showed that aside from an initial investment of 7.5 billion euros over nine years, that was disclosed in 2024, the world's largest alternative asset manager plans a second phase to add capacity at the same site, depending on demand from customers.

That second phase would take seven years to be completed, the company said.

Blackstone follows tech giants such as Microsoft MSFT.O and Amazon AMZN.O in choosing the northeastern region, which has around 20 data centre projects under evaluation.

The first phase would start in the second quarter of 2026, the document said. It would comprise eight data centres, an electricity substation, a photovoltaic power plant and connections to the grid.

The company said it had signed renewable electricity supply contracts for all its needs and its cooling systems will not use water, a commodity that is often in short supply in Spain.

($1 = 0.8542 euros)