According to reports, Microsoft plans to invest 6.69 billion euros ($7.16 billion) to develop new data centers in Spain's northeastern region of Aragon, which is becoming a major cloud computing hub within Europe.

The Aragonese government announced that a major U.S. high-tech company has applied for a construction permit to build a data center on the outskirts of Zaragoza, acknowledging a report in the local newspaper El Heraldo.

Microsoft, which recently announced a €2.1 billion investment in a Madrid data center, according to reports.

Microsoft has set its sights on Aragon after its main competitor, Amazon's cloud computing division AWS. Amazon announced last month that it will invest 15.7 billion euros over the next 10 years to build a data center in Aragon.

Amazon announced that it will power all of its data centers with renewable energy.

Zaragoza, Spain's fifth largest city is a logistics and transportation hub. Located halfway between Madrid and Barcelona, Spain's largest cities, it is in the middle of a major trade corridor linking the Iberian Peninsula with France and other European countries.

Hitachi and Microsoft Corporatio recently announced multi-billion dollar collaboration over the next three years to accelerate social innovation using generative AI.

Through this strategic alliance, Hitachi will promote the growth of its Lumada business, which plans sales of 2.65 trillion yen and $18.9 billion in fiscal 2024, as well as promote greater operational efficiency and productivity for the 270,000 employees of the Hitachi Group.