Alibaba, Solaria in Talks for Spanish Data Center Power Supply

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has held talks with Spanish clean-energy producer Solaria Energía y Medio Ambiente SA to potentially supply power for a data center in the Mediterranean country, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Chinese e-commerce giant has held preliminary conversations with Solaria, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The Solaria plant under consideration is in Puertollano, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of Madrid.

The plan, which would use renewable energy, is at an earlier stage than data centers Alibaba recently said it will build on the continent, one of the people said, adding that the company has spoke to other potential power suppliers too.

Spokespeople for Solaria and Alibaba declined to comment.

The move would represent the latest step in Alibaba’s artificial intelligence push in Europe, following its announcement last week that it will set up its first cloud regions in Finland and the Netherlands over the next 12 months. It’s also expanding its data center footprint in Germany and France. These moves will increasingly put Alibaba in direct competition with companies including Amazon Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

Alibaba is one of China’s most aggressive investors in digital infrastructure. In 2025, the company unveiled a $53 billion, three-year AI investment program and has since signaled plans to further increase capital expenditure.

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Chinese investments in Spain have been on the rise in recent years in sectors raging from automotive and batteries to renewable energy and logistics.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez signed a number of agreements aimed at attracting Chinese investment to Spain during a trip to Beijing earlier this year. He is one of the few European leaders advocating for closer ties with Beijing rather than more protectionist measures.

Alibaba’s interest comes amid growing uncertainty in the industry, with the government preparing a new set of rules to ensure domestic data centers are operated by European Union-based companies and that data related to their operation is stored within the bloc.

Sánchez’s administration aims to issue the rules, which would also require that any new energy demand by data centers matches with newly installed clean-energy capacity, by the end of the year.