Box2Bit will invest 3.4 billion euros in a data center campus in Cariñena

Cariñena will also have data centres. Box2Bit will invest 3.4 billion euros in its Campus Ebro, a technological ecosystem that will be located in the Entreviñas industrial estate in the Zaragoza town. This was announced on Tuesday by President Jorge Azcón, who has pointed out the creation of around 2,000 direct jobs, the majority, up to 1,604, during construction. The remaining 350 are part of the operational phase, when the infrastructure is fully operational, while the jobs classified as indirect are estimated to be in the “thousands”. The Governing Council has already given the green light to the declaration of General Interest (DIGA) in order to speed up the deadlines.

According to this document, the multinational estimates that the works on the first of the five buildings in the project will begin in the last quarter of 2025. According to the same calculations, they would last until the end of 2029 and would cover a maximum area of ​​28 hectares. Another figure that Azcón has highlighted is the impact on the Gross Domestic Product of the Community, which would be around 4.4 billion euros.

Box2Bit belongs to the renewable energy developer Capital Energy. That is, unlike other giants that have landed in Aragon in recent times, such as Blackstone, Amazon and Microsoft, it does have Spanish capital, another circumstance that has not gone unnoticed by the president. Regarding possible investments by the same multinational, Azcón has preferred not to anticipate events and that they will depend largely, he said, on Red Eléctrica. However, the supply is guaranteed for the first phase of the deployment.

Amid calls for “ patience ”, the leader of the DGA has stressed that “there is no other region in Europe that is receiving as much investment as Aragon”, with an emphasis on the technology sector. He alone has spoken in the Sala de Columnas, without representatives of the parent company or Box2Bit. In Azcón’s opinion, the communication policies of the Government and the company do not have to coincide. All this following a question about possible layoffs at Capital Energy, which is undergoing staff cuts.

THE HORIZON OF 40 BILLION

The Community has already received 36.4 billion euros in investment so far this year, if this last one is included, according to the president. Closing the arrival of the battery factory of the Chinese company CATL to Stelantis would mean reaching the milestone of 40 billion, as he indicated. For the moment, and without going into future prospects, he has highlighted the role of data centres as “levers of change” or “motors of the Aragonese economy ”.

2024 is, according to him, “a historic year without a doubt” and the Ebro Campus will join this wave “generating opportunities for people in the area”. He said that this climate is also contributed to by the capacity to install 
renewable energies, which Box2Bit will also foreseeably draw on, and the “ social peace of Aragon”.