- Quadrupling of number of Internet Exchanges and 438% growth in aggregated connected networks since 2016
- Planned investment of 748 megawatts (MW) of installed power capacity in data centers within the next two years, an increase of 356%
Madrid (Spain) The digital hub Madrid is set to become the heart of a new regional mega hub on the Iberian Peninsula, making Madrid instrumental in optimizing global data flows and a key strategic location for international businesses, according to a new study published by DE-CIX, the world’s leading Internet Exchange (IX) operator. The study, “Madrid: Heart of the digital ecosystem of the Iberian Peninsula*,” quantifies the enormous growth in digital infrastructure and investment in the city over the last decade. It shows a quadrupling of the number of IXs from one to four and 438% growth in aggregated networks connecting to these IXs, up from just 80 in 2016 to 431 in 2024. The city has close to 40 data centers and there are plans for a further 748 megawatts (MW) of installed power capacity (a growth of 356%) in the coming two years. Significant investments from multiple cloud service providers, including recent announcements of multi-billion-dollar investments by Microsoft, Google, and IBM, highlight the significance of the city and its continuing growth.
Madrid: A strategic location for international businesses
Major terrestrial cables connected to Madrid have increased by 43% since 2016, providing robust connectivity within the Iberian Peninsula and to the rest of Europe. Beyond the borders of Madrid, a constellation of coastal hubs – including Barcelona, Bilbao, Lisbon, and Sines – enable Madrid access to the aggregated subsea cable systems of Iberia. The study shows that in mid-2024, international submarine cable systems connecting to the Iberian Peninsula totaled 35, with a further five under construction and to be operational within the next two years. Furthermore, at the very center of the Iberian Peninsula, Madrid is perfectly situated to capitalize on the complementary ecosystem of IXs across the Iberian Peninsula, today comprising 13 IXs in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Lisbon, and Porto. This infrastructure cluster, or regional mega hub, enables the strengths of each location to contribute to the digital readiness of the entire region, serving the needs of highly digitalized enterprises and end customers with clouds, content, and applications at the lowest latencies. The new study highlights the interplay of networks, data centers, and IXs to further economic growth and encourage local and foreign investment in the region.
“The combined geographical and infrastructural advantages and the outstanding growth in the digital ecosystem of Madrid since 2016 shows the importance of the city as a strategic location for international businesses,” comments Theresa Bobis, Regional Director Southern Europe at DE-CIX. “The study demonstrates that Madrid has the digital readiness to serve an economically valuable region, as well as playing a vital role in optimizing global traffic flows. For any multi-national company considering Europe in their strategy, Madrid should be one of their foremost destinations. With Iberia situated directly at the crossroads of international data flows connecting five continents, Madrid really is at the very center of the digital world.”
Uniquely positioned and a formidable player in the global digital landscape
The need for alternative routes, independent of heavily congested paths from the United States to European cities like Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris has amplified Iberia’s importance in the European digital landscape, the study explains. The transatlantic data route is the busiest and most competitive worldwide. Transatlantic data flows are vital to the US $8.3 trillion economic relationship between the EU and the United States, representing over half of Europe’s and about half of the US’s global data flows. More than 90% of EU-based companies transfer data to and from the US.
“The Iberian Peninsula, and Madrid at its center, is uniquely positioned to act as a digital gateway between Europe and the world,” explains Serge Radovcic from Dstream Group, co-author of the study. “With its strategic location on the shores of both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, the peninsula offers the shortest routes to North and South America, Africa, across to the Middle East, and beyond. Together, the Iberian markets form a robust network that positions Iberia as a formidable player in the global digital landscape, capable of attracting investment and driving technological advancement. Here, each key market’s willingness to expand, complement, and collaborate with neighboring hubs is crucial for the region to thrive on a larger scale.”
The DE-CIX carrier and data center neutral ecosystem of interconnected IXs, including DE-CIX Madrid, DE-CIX Barcelona, and DE-CIX Lisbon, as well as DE-CIX Marseille in southern France and DE-CIX Frankfurt in Germany, one of the largest IXs in the world, makes a significant contribution to the seamless exchange of data across the peninsula, and to Europe. Beyond that, DE-CIX, as the world’s leading operator of Internet Exchanges (IXs), offers its interconnection services in 55 locations in Europe, Africa, North and South America, the Middle East, and Asia. Accessible from data centers in over 600 cities world-wide, DE-CIX interconnects thousands of network operators (carriers), Internet service providers (ISPs), content providers and enterprise networks from more than 100 countries, and offers peering, cloud, and other enterprise-grade interconnection services.
*The study was commissioned by DE-CIX and conducted by the Dstream Group. It refers to Spain and Portugal as the Iberian Peninsula.