Summary
- Madrid 2 will provide 56MW across approximately 24,000 sq m, taking the Global Switch campus to 70MW.
- EIGO Construcciones is delivering the facility, with operation targeted from 2029 and full capacity expected by 2032.
- The project moves another large Madrid scheme into construction as grid access, equipment procurement, cooling design, and delivery schedules shape Iberian growth.
Global Switch has started construction of Madrid 2, a 56MW data centre that will increase the capacity of its Spanish campus to 70MW.
The new facility is planned across approximately 24,000 sq m beside the existing Madrid 1 building on Calle Yécora. Spanish contractor EIGO Construcciones is delivering the project, with the first capacity expected to enter service in 2029 and the full building scheduled to be available by 2032.
Madrid 2 is intended to support cloud, artificial intelligence, and high performance computing workloads. Its existing neighbour, Madrid 1, provides 14MW and is itself undergoing upgrades through 2027, giving Global Switch a phased route to expand on an established metropolitan site rather than opening a separate campus.
Construction cuts through the development pipeline
Madrid has accumulated a substantial pipeline of proposed data centre capacity, but projects at the construction stage give a clearer indication of how much supply is moving towards operation. Land acquisitions and headline megawatt targets can precede delivery by years, particularly where power reservations, planning, procurement, and customer commitments remain unresolved.
Madrid 2 has crossed several of those gates. A contractor is in place, construction has begun, and Global Switch lists the 56MW building alongside its existing Madrid facility. The long programme to 2032 reflects the way large campuses are normally energised and occupied in phases rather than opening at their full electrical envelope on day one.
Behind the 56MW capacity figure sits a much larger package of electrical and mechanical infrastructure. Utility connections, transformers, switchgear, UPS systems, standby generation, distribution equipment, controls, and heat rejection plant all have to reach commissioning in the correct sequence before halls can support customer equipment.
Global Switch has not disclosed a Madrid 2 specific cooling configuration in the material reviewed. That leaves an important design variable open as customers push towards higher rack densities. AI and high performance computing deployments can concentrate substantially more heat into each rack than conventional enterprise workloads, increasing demand for liquid cooling or hybrid thermal systems and changing the mechanical infrastructure required around the data hall.
Building that flexibility into a new facility is generally less disruptive than adding it after halls are occupied. Pipe routes, heat exchangers, pumps, water temperatures, controls, floor loading, and electrical distribution can all be designed around a broader density range before customer equipment arrives.
Madrid growth meets hotter operating conditions
Spain has become one of Europe’s fastest growing data centre markets outside the established Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin hubs. Madrid combines a large domestic economy with strong fibre connectivity, cloud demand, and access to an expanding renewable generation base, while international operators have continued to add land and capacity around the capital.
The city also presents a different thermal environment from northern European markets. High summer ambient temperatures reduce the number of hours in which facilities can rely heavily on free cooling and increase the work required from mechanical heat rejection systems. As rack densities climb, developers have to balance electrical efficiency, water use, peak summer conditions, and the redundancy needed to maintain cooling through equipment failures or maintenance.
Global Switch says its Madrid location is designed around low water consumption, although operating performance for Madrid 2 will only become measurable after the facility enters service. Water use is receiving more scrutiny across southern Europe as drought and competing municipal and industrial demand make cooling architecture part of the wider infrastructure discussion around new capacity.
The electrical side is equally demanding. Data centre growth in Madrid is arriving alongside wider electrification, renewable integration, and industrial demand, putting pressure on the substations and network reinforcement required to turn planned capacity into firm connections. A large building can be physically advanced while its commercial opening remains tied to external grid works.
A 2029 opening leaves little room for procurement drift
A multi-year construction programme does not remove pressure from the delivery schedule. Transformers, high voltage switchgear, generators, cooling equipment, and other mission critical components are being ordered by data centres, grid operators, industrial projects, and renewable developments at the same time, stretching manufacturing capacity for equipment that already carries long lead times.
Early procurement therefore becomes closely linked to construction sequencing. Delays to a transformer or switchgear package can hold up energisation even after structural and mechanical work is well advanced, while late design changes around compute density can flow through cooling, power distribution, and controls.
The phased route to 2032 allows Global Switch to align further investment with customer demand rather than installing the entire 56MW at once. That reduces some utilisation risk, while preserving the ability to bring additional halls online as cloud and AI customers commit to capacity.
Madrid 2 now adds a defined 56MW build to the city’s active construction programme. The next milestones will sit less in headline capacity than in energisation, equipment delivery, commissioning, and the rate at which customer demand converts the new electrical envelope into occupied IT load.
