Meta, IBM, Google, Amazon: How thousands of tech jobs are being created in Spain
Tech workers who have dreamt of living and working in Spain are in luck, as some of the biggest tech companies in the world are looking to invest heavily in Spain in the coming months and years, creating thousands of jobs in the process.
Meta, IBM, Google and Amazon are among the big players that have announced they will set up billion-euro data centres and other tech infrastructure in Spain in the coming years.
In layman’s terms, data centres are buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.
Some of the jobs on offer at data centres include data engineers, electrical and mechanical supervisors, project managers and surveyors, to name a few.
Although good news for a country which has struggled to diversify its economy past its dependency on tourism, Spain is currently struggling to find highly skilled IT and tech professionals to meet the existing demand.
It remains to be seen if the new digital transformation plans that the Spanish government is developing with billions of euros in European funds will provide a solution to this shortage, but it does open the door to highly experienced foreign workers who wish to further their career in Spain.
Here are more details on the projects and job creation targets announced by these major industry players which are investing heavily in cloud computing in Spain.
Meta
Meta, the new name Facebook goes by, has committed to employing 2,000 new employees in Spain.
The social media giant, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, also plans to invest in Spain's digital infrastructure with a new transatlantic cable and a €1 billion data centre in the town of Talavera de la Reina in the central Castilla-La Mancha region.
It will be Meta’s first data centre in southern Europe as the existing ones are located in Sweden, Denmark and Ireland.
"As our company prepares to help build the metaverse, we are placing Spain at the centre of our plans by creating new highly-skilled jobs, supporting local tech companies and entrepreneurs, and investing in essential digital infrastructure, Vice President of Meta Javier Oliván said following his meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on March 15th.
The company headed by Mark Zuckerberg has not yet specified what exactly its projects in Spain will be, but it has said that they will represent "an investment of several billion euros" and that they will provide more information about each project in due course.
What the tech giant has disclosed is that it will open the first Meta Lab in the world in Spain, a place of support and innovation for Meta’s remote workers, with space for technological entrepreneurs and startups.
The company, which will also double its office space in Madrid, has said its chosen to invest heavily in Spain because "it is at the forefront of European technology" and has two major technology centres in Madrid and Barcelona and two other smaller ones in Valencia and Andalusia.
Amazon
Amazon 's AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud service will open three new data centres in Spain to improve the infrastructure in Spain, Europe and elsewhere.
The online shopping giant currently has data centres throughout the world but not in Spain, where they are expected to be set up in 2022 and 2023. The northeastern region of Aragón is one of the chosen locations for these data centres.
Amazon estimates the projects will increase Spain’s GDP by around €1.8 billion and create 1,300 new jobs in the next ten years.
According to the company headed by Jeff Bezos, “Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centres globally”.
Customers such as Telefónica use it to lower costs, become more agile, and innovate faster, for example through technology that allows clients to see the carbon footprint of their work.
Google
The world’s most used search engine has already chosen Spain for its future cloud computing projects, with a Google Cloud region set to be created in the Spanish capital, which will include three data centres.
IBM
The American multinational technology corporation in 2021 announced it will open three data centres in Madrid and in the nearby towns of Alcobendas and Las Rozas.
It is expected the centres will be operational in 2023 and lead to the creation of hundreds of jobs.
Oracle
Software giant Oracle has joined the race to develop cloud technologies in Spain, announcing in late 2021 that it would set up a data centre in Spain without specifying yet where this will be.
Microsoft
The company headed by Bill Gates opened a cloud region data centre in Spain in 2022 with the help of the Telefónica network and over the coming years is forecast to directly or indirectly create 55,000 jobs in Spain.
READ ALSO: The most in-demand jobs in Spain in 2022
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Meta, IBM, Google and Amazon are among the big players that have announced they will set up billion-euro data centres and other tech infrastructure in Spain in the coming years.
In layman’s terms, data centres are buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.
Some of the jobs on offer at data centres include data engineers, electrical and mechanical supervisors, project managers and surveyors, to name a few.
Although good news for a country which has struggled to diversify its economy past its dependency on tourism, Spain is currently struggling to find highly skilled IT and tech professionals to meet the existing demand.
It remains to be seen if the new digital transformation plans that the Spanish government is developing with billions of euros in European funds will provide a solution to this shortage, but it does open the door to highly experienced foreign workers who wish to further their career in Spain.
Here are more details on the projects and job creation targets announced by these major industry players which are investing heavily in cloud computing in Spain.
Meta
Meta, the new name Facebook goes by, has committed to employing 2,000 new employees in Spain.
The social media giant, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, also plans to invest in Spain's digital infrastructure with a new transatlantic cable and a €1 billion data centre in the town of Talavera de la Reina in the central Castilla-La Mancha region.
It will be Meta’s first data centre in southern Europe as the existing ones are located in Sweden, Denmark and Ireland.
"As our company prepares to help build the metaverse, we are placing Spain at the centre of our plans by creating new highly-skilled jobs, supporting local tech companies and entrepreneurs, and investing in essential digital infrastructure, Vice President of Meta Javier Oliván said following his meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on March 15th.
The company headed by Mark Zuckerberg has not yet specified what exactly its projects in Spain will be, but it has said that they will represent "an investment of several billion euros" and that they will provide more information about each project in due course.
What the tech giant has disclosed is that it will open the first Meta Lab in the world in Spain, a place of support and innovation for Meta’s remote workers, with space for technological entrepreneurs and startups.
The company, which will also double its office space in Madrid, has said its chosen to invest heavily in Spain because "it is at the forefront of European technology" and has two major technology centres in Madrid and Barcelona and two other smaller ones in Valencia and Andalusia.
Amazon
Amazon 's AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud service will open three new data centres in Spain to improve the infrastructure in Spain, Europe and elsewhere.
The online shopping giant currently has data centres throughout the world but not in Spain, where they are expected to be set up in 2022 and 2023. The northeastern region of Aragón is one of the chosen locations for these data centres.
Amazon estimates the projects will increase Spain’s GDP by around €1.8 billion and create 1,300 new jobs in the next ten years.
According to the company headed by Jeff Bezos, “Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centres globally”.
Customers such as Telefónica use it to lower costs, become more agile, and innovate faster, for example through technology that allows clients to see the carbon footprint of their work.
The world’s most used search engine has already chosen Spain for its future cloud computing projects, with a Google Cloud region set to be created in the Spanish capital, which will include three data centres.
IBM
The American multinational technology corporation in 2021 announced it will open three data centres in Madrid and in the nearby towns of Alcobendas and Las Rozas.
It is expected the centres will be operational in 2023 and lead to the creation of hundreds of jobs.
Oracle
Software giant Oracle has joined the race to develop cloud technologies in Spain, announcing in late 2021 that it would set up a data centre in Spain without specifying yet where this will be.
Microsoft
The company headed by Bill Gates opened a cloud region data centre in Spain in 2022 with the help of the Telefónica network and over the coming years is forecast to directly or indirectly create 55,000 jobs in Spain.
READ ALSO: The most in-demand jobs in Spain in 2022
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