IREN plans an approximately 300MW AI data centre campus in Badajoz, Spain, with initial operations targeted for 2028, the company said in a 21 October release issued at Nvidia’s GTC Berlin conference. The AI cloud provider said it has secured grid-connected power and a civil works licence for the site, where it intends to sell managed services to European customers.
Key points
- IREN is targeting initial operations in 2028 at its planned approximately 300MW Badajoz campus.
- The company says it has secured grid-connected power and a civil works licence for the site.
- IREN has established a European holding company and appointed a board chair and regional executive director.
- The Badajoz announcement gave no construction budget or customer contract, Mugglehead reported.
Badajoz plans centre on 300MW of capacity
IREN builds data centres and GPU clusters and offers AI cloud services. It entered Europe in June through its acquisition of Nostrum Group, a Spanish data centre developer with a team of more than 60. IREN described Badajoz as its first European project and said the campus would form part of a portfolio of more than 5GW of grid-connected power across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
The company plans to offer European customers a choice of location for AI processing and control of their data and infrastructure. IREN said the Badajoz campus is designed to work with Nvidia’s DSX AI Factory Platform. Its planned closed-loop liquid cooling system would require minimal water for cooling, according to the release.
IREN said it remains in consultation with local, regional and national authorities as the project advances. The civil works licence is the permission it identified in the announcement. The site’s planned capacity and 2028 operating target are separate from the grid power and licence the company says it has secured.
The announcement gave neither a construction budget nor a Badajoz customer contract, Mugglehead reported. The Badajoz project has 300 MW of planned capacity on 75 acres in Extremadura, with a schedule starting in 2028.
IREN Europe appoints Corcóstegui and Purcaro
IREN has established IREN Europe as the holding company for its regional operations. It appointed Ángel Corcóstegui, a former Banco Santander chief executive, to chair the new board. Roberto Purcaro, previously Global Head of Complex Opportunities and Head of Italy at Macquarie Capital, became Executive Director for Europe and joined the board.
The company intends to pair European capacity with software capabilities obtained through its completed acquisition of Mirantis. IREN says those capabilities can provision and manage AI infrastructure, including controls for keeping customer workloads separate. Its k0rdent AI software also integrates Nvidia technologies, including Nvidia Infra Controller and Nvidia Run:ai.
Amazon offers an operating point of comparison in European sovereign cloud. Its service became generally available in Brandenburg in January 2026, Mugglehead reported. Amazon says customer-created content and metadata remain in the European Union and that the service is operated exclusively by staff who live there. Its planned €7.8 billion investment extends through 2040. AI Affairs has also reported Cadence’s opening of a sovereign AI centre in Munich, with further Nvidia systems planned.
IREN’s financing covers other GPU deployments
IREN’s 27 August results described US$14 billion comprising cash, committed GPU financing and customer prepayments. The same results identified US$2.8 billion of new GPU financings for customer deployments. Within that amount, US$2.4 billion supported an air-cooled expansion at Mackenzie at a fixed interest rate of 9.0 per cent, funding 90 per cent of the associated GPU capital expenditure. Those are stated uses for another deployment, rather than financing terms for Badajoz.
IREN shares traded at $27.78, up 4% during the morning of 21 October, while remaining down 26% for the year, Yahoo Finance reported. Cipher Digital was also up 4%, and Core Scientific gained 3%. Both companies, like IREN, had moved from Bitcoin mining towards AI data centres.
For the fiscal year ended 30 June, IREN reported US$128.8 million in AI cloud services revenue, against US$16.4 million a year earlier. IREN is targeting an annualised AI cloud revenue run rate of US$4 billion by 31 December. Its August results made that company-wide ramp subject to commissioning, testing and customer acceptance after data centre delivery.
