CoreWeave Inc, (Nasdaq: CRWV) today announced it is partnering with MERLIN Edged to host one of the first large-scale NVIDIA Hopper training and inference supercomputers in Spain at a new ultra-efficient data center in Barcelona, which was inaugurated on 13th May by the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, accompanied by Albert Tort, Secretary of Telecommunications and Digital Transformation of the Government at Generalitat de Catalunya.
The 15MW site will host 10,224 NVIDIA H200 Tensor Core GPUs with InfiniBand connectivity, with plans to extend capacity with a Blackwell supercomputer in 2026. In 2024, CoreWeave announced an initial investment of $2.2 billion across Europe, bringing the AI cloud and high compute capacity to continental Europe, powered by 100 percent renewable energy.
MERLIN Properties, a leading real estate and infrastructure company in Spain and Portugal, and Edged Energy, a global technology developer for sustainable data centers, partnered in 2020 to promote, build, equip, and operate cutting-edge digital infrastructure in the Iberian Peninsula. MERLIN Edged data centers are at the forefront of international innovation in sustainability, with zero water consumption and extremely high efficiency in converting electrical power into computing capacity. They are currently designed to provide customers with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.15, compared to the European average of 1.46 and the global average of 1.56, according to the Uptime Institute. They operate exclusively on electricity from renewable sources and are specifically designed to minimize and offset their carbon footprint.
The CoreWeave – MERLIN Edged partnership aims to significantly expand this computing capacity across southern Europe.
“This asset represents the realization of a shared vision: to transform Barcelona into a true digital port in the Mediterranean, and into an international benchmark for the digital economy and technological innovation. A forward-looking infrastructure, built to address the technological challenges of the future as they arise. The Barcelona Town Hall remains committed to foster a supportive environment for these types of initiatives” – highlighted Mr. Jaume Collboni, Mayor of Barcelona.
In a written statement, MHP Salvador Illa, President of the Generalitat de Catalunya added that “our region is articulating its ambition to establish itself as a preeminent European AI hub. This new partnership between CoreWeave and MERLIN Edged sets us at the forefront of the European artificial intelligence landscape.”
“CoreWeave is pleased to collaborate with MERLIN Edged as it brings highly performant and scalable compute to Europe, powering the next wave of AI.” – said Mike Mattacola, GM, International at CoreWeave. “This collaboration aligns with our commitment to sustainability and continuously improving the efficiency of our operations.”
“Catalonia is positioned as a strategic technology hub and combines a strong foundation of renewable energy with an extremely efficient, CO2 neutral base with nuclear infrastructure. Furthermore, the robust fiber connection to the rest of Spain, Europe and the world allows us not only to meet local demand but also to actively attract top-tier international players in the AI field, like CoreWeave.” – said Ismael Clemente, CEO of MERLIN Properties.
“We are proud to partner with CoreWeave. This region offers a unique combination of a dense fibre network for global connectivity and abundant renewable energy, making it the ideal home for an AI hyperscaler,” said Jakob Carnemark, founder of Edged Energy and Endeavour. “By building ultra-efficient, carbon neutral data centers that consume zero water for cooling, MERLIN Edged is delivering the sustainable, innovative solutions that empower companies like CoreWeave to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.”
MERLIN Edged’s Barcelona data center is linked to the Barcelona Cable Landing Station (BCLS), connecting to some of the fastest subsea cables and serving as a gateway to major global markets from the western Mediterranean. This facility also accesses other subsea cables and land-based networks across Europe and North America. MERLIN Edged have established a European gateway leveraging advanced global fibre networks and strong regional energy production to enhance world-class connectivity. Their operating data centers in Barcelona-PLZF, Madrid-Getafe and Bilbao-Arasur and their pipeline in Lisbon, Madrid-Tres Cantos and Extremadura, are pivotal in transforming the Iberian Peninsula into a hub for high-demand accelerated compute solutions, particularly for powering AI.
