Microsoft has hired Spanish contractor Ferrovial to build a data centre near Madrid as the first step in a $12bn investment programme, business journal Cinco Días reports.

The facility, which will be built in the San Sebastián de los Reyes municipality about 20km north of the Spanish capital and will aim for LEED Gold certification.

Microsoft entered into an alliance with Ferrovial in February, with the US tech company digitising the contractor’s operations and hiring it for construction schemes.

No cost was given for the centre, although Cinco Días quotes sources familiar with the project who said it would cost “several hundred million”.

Microsoft’s longer term ambition is to invest more than $12bn in data centres in 17 European states. The number reflects the need to process data within national boundaries, an important requirement for both banks and governments.

In Spain, the San Sebastián facility will be joined by others in the towns of Algete and Meco, which are also near Madrid. The centres will support Microsoft’s Azure cloud services platform as well as Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.

Ferrovial has previously built date centres for banks and telecoms company Telefónica and different banks.