The Iberian Peninsula has established itself as the world’s first “Distributed Digital Capital” and is preparing to become Europe’s next large distributed AI hub, according to a new study prepared by Dstream Group and commissioned by DE-CIX, the world’s leading operator of Internet exchange points (IX).
The region represents a unique digital ecosystem, prepared to respond to the demands of AI thanks to a distributed infrastructure that interconnects the strategic hubs of Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon. Together, these interconnected hubs create a unique digital ecosystem that combines geographic diversity with the low-latency connectivity required by AI and other data-intensive workloads. With this, the Iberian Peninsula joins the group of traditional Digital Capitals concentrated in a single city, such as Frankfurt, London and New York.
The study, titled “The Iberian Distributed Digital Capital: Powering Cloud & AI Through a New Geography of Digital Hubs”, has been presented at this year’s edition of Atlantic Convergence in Lisbon, one of the main digital infrastructure events in Europe. The publication of the study coincides with the tenth anniversary of the arrival of DE-CIX to the Iberian market.
Low-latency connectivity and almost 9 gigawatt expansion in data centers transform the peninsula
Interconnection hub with coastal hubs
The Iberian ecosystem currently has 35 submarine cables with 20 mooring points on the coast, 12 large terrestrial backbone networks, 13 Internet exchange points, more than 100 data centers and more than 800 networks; a density comparable to that of some of the main Digital Capitals of the world. Low latency connectivity of between 7 and 8 milliseconds (ms) links the Madrid interconnection hub with the coastal submarine cable and interconnection hubs of Barcelona and Lisbon. This enables seamless data exchange for AI and other workloads distributed across the peninsula. In this way, the Iberian Peninsula offers a unique opportunity to combine AI training and inference infrastructure with the advantages of EU sovereignty, responding to the needs of network and data center operators, as well as companies.
With the strong growth of AI, the Iberian Peninsula has experienced unprecedented growth, especially in the data center sector, with almost 9 gigawatts (GW) of new installations predicted for the coming years, according to the study. As a strategic gateway for interconnection between Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East, the Iberian Peninsula offers a secure, sovereign and high-performance infrastructure for AI use cases, both for the domestic market and for export. Along with the main hubs of Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon, the Iberian ecosystem is reinforced by complementary hubs such as Valencia, Bilbao and Sines, as well as the regions of Aragon and Extremadura.
DE-CIX celebrates 10 years in the Iberian market
The publication of the study coincides with the tenth anniversary of the expansion of DE-CIX to the Iberian Peninsula and the creation of DE-CIX Madrid, today the largest IX on the peninsula. Launched in 2016, the Internet, Cloud and AI Exchange connects more than 220 networks, with more than 11 terabits of connected capacity and peak traffic exceeding 1.5 terabits per second (Tbit/s). Subsequently, DE-CIX launched DE-CIX Lisbon in 2018 and DE-CIX Barcelona in 2021. Currently, these three points form an integral part of the Iberian interconnection ecosystem, allowing low latency connectivity between networks, cloud platforms, companies and digital infrastructure providers.
“The Dstream Group study clearly demonstrates the uniqueness and importance of the Iberian ecosystem, unique on the planet,” commented Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX. “The Iberian Peninsula can now join the most valued digital enclaves in the world as the first Distributed Digital Capital on a global scale. When DE-CIX established DE-CIX Madrid 10 years ago, the Iberian Peninsula was not yet on the radar of many infrastructure operators. Today, large volumes of investment linked to AI are heading towards the peninsula, and at DE-CIX we are proud to offer the functionalities of our AI Exchange to make this infrastructure easily available to networks and companies.”
Low latency connectivity, global underwater connections and data center projects of almost 9 gigawatts are its strengths
“As a gateway to five continents, the Iberian Peninsula is truly connected on a global scale. Its sovereign, AI-ready infrastructure is ready to serve not only continental Europe, but also all Atlantic and Mediterranean regions. This would not be possible without IX operators like DE-CIX, which provide seamless, low-latency connectivity,” says Serge Radovcic, co-author of the study. “The data clearly shows that the Iberian Peninsula has the potential to establish itself as the next European AI hub. In the era of artificial intelligence, the direct and secure interconnection of networks through Internet exchange points has become an increasingly strategic necessity, not only for network operators, but also for data center operators and companies.”
The full report “The Iberian Distributed Digital Capital: Powering Cloud & AI Through a New Geography of Digital Hubs” is now available for download.
