Facebook parent company Meta has rented the data centers of Spanish real estate firm Merlin Properties.
The company is now the main client of Merlin's three new data centers, according to a report in Cinco Dias.
Merlin completed its first three data centers at the end of last year in Madrid, Barcelona, and Alava.
The three data centers each have current capacity of 3MW, though how much of this has been leased to Meta has not been shared. The company has not commented on its agreement with Merlin.
Merlin expects its three Spanish data centers are expected to gain total additional capacity of 24MW by the end of the year.
It is currently developing a fourth data center in Lisbon, Portugal, and anticipates that, once this is operational, it will have a total footprint of 58MW across the two countries.
According to reports, Merlin designed some data center rooms with Meta in mind, in order to meet the company's technology requirements.
The contracts reportedly range between five and fifteen years.
Operations first commenced at the Spanish data centers last month. All four have been built in partnership with US firm Edged Energy. According to Merlin, the Barcelona facility will eventually have 16MW of capacity, while Madrid will have 20MW and Bilbao will have 22MW, expandable to 100MW. All have a PUE of 1.15, and use 100 percent renewable energy.
The Barcelona data center is directly corrected via its meet-me room to the Barcelona cable landing station which houses the 2Africa and Medusa subsea cables. The data center also has connections to Exa and Axent's networks across Europe and North America.
Meta is also planning a data center campus in the Toledo region of Spain, and said in 2022 it would invest up to $1.08bn in the site. That data center was set to be constructed during 2023, but according to a spokesperson it is "in the planning process following the administrative requirements that will allow us to build the center."
According to the company's recent earnings report, Meta is planning to spend up to $37 billion on new digital infrastructure in 2024.
In November 2023, Cinco Dias also reported that Merlin was seeking around €1bn ($1.08bn) in capital investment from a single partner, preferably a sovereign fund or pension fund, to further its data center plans for the country.
