IREN secures license for 300MW Spanish AI campus, targeting a 2028 start

IREN has secured a civil works license for its planned AI campus in Badajoz, Spain, and established a European holding company to oversee its regional business. Announced October 21 at NVIDIA’s GTC Berlin, the roughly 300MW project targets initial operations in 2028, offering managed AI computing to customers seeking more control over where their workloads run.

The latest announcement advances a site IREN first announced in May. The company entered Europe in June 2026 through its acquisition of Nostrum Group, a Spain-based data-center developer. That transaction brought a local team of more than 60 people, led by Gabriel Nebreda, chief executive of IREN Spain. IREN now describes Badajoz as its first European project and the foundation for its regional AI cloud capacity.

The new holding company, IREN Europe, adds a regional board and executive leadership alongside that Spanish operating team. Former Banco Santander chief executive Ángel Corcóstegui will chair the board. Roberto Purcaro joins the board as executive director for Europe, following his role as global head of Complex Opportunities and head of Italy at Macquarie Capital.

Their backgrounds include infrastructure finance as well as banking. Corcóstegui co-founded Magnum Capital, a private equity firm focused on Spain and Portugal, and has experience in engineering and energy investments. Purcaro brings more than 25 years of experience across infrastructure, energy transition and digital infrastructure. IREN is placing both executives over a business it says will develop and operate its own sites.

For customers in Europe, sovereign AI starts with two questions: where their data sits and who’s running the infrastructure.

Daniel Roberts, IREN co-founder and co-CEO

At Badajoz, IREN says it has secured grid-connected power as well as the civil works license. It remains in consultation with local, regional and national authorities as development proceeds. The planned capacity is approximately 300 megawatts; the announcement describes a future campus, not an operating facility already supplying that capacity to customers.

The campus design uses closed-loop liquid cooling, which IREN says requires minimal water for cooling. It is also designed for compatibility with NVIDIA’s DSX AI Factory Platform. Those are design commitments for the proposed facility. IREN has not presented them as measured operating results from Badajoz, which remains targeted for a 2028 start.

IREN intends to pair its European capacity with software capabilities acquired through Mirantis, including the k0rdent AI platform. The company says that software can provision and manage AI infrastructure, separate customer workloads and provide operating controls. Its stated purpose is to help customers address requirements covering data location, security and governance—not simply to offer computing from a Spanish address.

The platform also integrates NVIDIA Infra Controller and NVIDIA Run:ai into a unified management system, according to IREN. The company intends to offer those capabilities alongside its European capacity as that capacity comes online. Managed services are therefore part of the campus strategy, rather than a separate service already available from Badajoz.

The commercial and delivery milestones remain ahead. No customers were named for Badajoz in the announcement. Stocktwits reported that the 2028 start target remains subject to permits, grid connections and financing. IREN’s own release likewise warns that its development timetable and European cloud-service plans are forward-looking statements, not promises or guarantees.