Alibaba in Early Talks with Solaria for Spain Data Center Power

Alibaba Group Holding has entered preliminary talks with Spanish clean-energy company Solaria Energía y Medio Ambiente to supply power for a data center in Puertollano, about 240 kilometers from Madrid, Bloomberg reported on October 2, 2026. Spokespeople for both companies declined to comment. The discussions remain less advanced than Alibaba's publicly disclosed data center commitments elsewhere in Europe, and the company has approached other energy providers as well. The talks form part of Alibaba's broader European digital infrastructure push. Last week, it announced plans for its first cloud regions in Finland and the Netherlands within 12 months, plus expanded data center operations in Germany and France, intensifying competition with Amazon and Microsoft. Alibaba has committed to a three-year, $53 billion AI spending program launched in 2025. Capital expenditures reached 67.68 billion yuan ($9.98 billion) in its most recent fiscal quarter, up 75% year-over-year. Madrid is drafting rules limiting data center operations to E.U.-headquartered firms and tying incremental power use to new renewable generation. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez aims to issue those rules by year-end.