Sovereign AI programme of Spain
SpainSpain sovereign AI programme
Spain has one system of 4,480 accelerators in operation.
BSC AI Factory, from 2024, target year 2025; also covers MareNostrum 5 and AI Strategy 2024
- operating
| Stage | Run by | Accelerators | Count | Chip | Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In operation | BSC | 4,480 | NVIDIA H100 | MareNostrum 5 |
Funding
Its sources give a headline amount of ~$1.6B (National AI Strategy 2024), also stated as government funding. The government’s budget documents state an approved budget of €1.5 billion, 2024 to 2025.
- €1.5 billion National AI Strategy 2024
- $1.6BGovernment
- MareNostrum 5 procurement (€151.41 million; EuroHPC and Spain/Portugal/Türkiye consortium)
- Government
- MareNostrum 5 AI upgrade (€129 million, January 2026; EuroHPC and participating countries)
- Government
- MareNostrum 5 and Spanish Supercomputing Network (€90 million within the €1.5 billion strategy)
- Government
Chips and export rules
- Accelerators
- NVIDIA’s accelerators are in its one system.Chip makers’ product pages
- Fabrication
- TSMC fabricates the Hopper parts that one of its systems names.Chip makers’ product pages
- US export rules
- Spain is in Country Group A:5, outside the groups where exporting advanced AI chips needs a licence from the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 29 Oct 2026
- Scrutica’s rating
- Scrutica rates the programme’s dependence on NVIDIA hardware and on US technology medium, on a scale of none, low, medium and high.A qualitative assessment of the programme’s chips, partners and supplier relationships, as none, low, medium or high
Partners
14 partners
9 partners by procurement stage and 5 more named in the programme’s sources.
- Awarded, 3
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), FSAS Technologies, Telefonica
- Selected, 6
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT), Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK), National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI București), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Generalitat de Catalunya – Departament de Recerca i Universitats, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC)
- Named in sources
- BSC-CNS, EuroHPC JU, Spanish Government, Catalan Government, Fujitsu
Sites
1 site
A site’s count is its whole machine; a system above can be an addition to it.
| Site | Place | Status | Accelerators | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MareNostrum 5 (EuroHPC) | Barcelona, Spain | Operational | 4,480 | EuroHPC JU |
Sources read to 25 Sep 2026.
Sources, 12
- BSC AI Factory selection
- 7 Apr 2026
- MareNostrum 5 upgrade contract (EuroHPC)
- 7 Apr 2026
- EuroHPC Spain AI Factory page
- 28 Mar 2026
How the figures were made
Operating compute / delivered hardware. Reported operational or delivered: 4,480 NVIDIA H100 (physical hardware). The stage is assigned from reported hardware status, disbursements and commitments.
Announced in EUR, converted at 1.0818 on 14 May 2024 (Federal Reserve H.10).
BSC provides research and industry access to MareNostrum 5; its accelerated partition has 4,480 NVIDIA H100 GPUs. The BSC AI Factory has offered computing access and technical support since April 2025. ALIA uses MareNostrum 5 to train public language models for Spanish and its co-official languages. A €129M upgrade contract signed in January 2026 covers additional AI capacity.
3 components are named in the programme’s sources without an amount.
The components with an amount sum to $1.62B against the $1.62B announced, a difference of $0.
The June 2022 MareNostrum 5 procurement budget was €151.41M: half from EuroHPC and half from a consortium of Spain, Portugal and Türkiye. The published budget covers procurement; payments to suppliers are not itemized.
A full bar is 30,000 accelerators, the scale of Sovereign AI Programmes. Each system is a bar of its own and no total is printed, since two records can describe one machine.
Corrections, 1
Caveats, 4
- MareNostrum 5’s accelerated partition comprises 1,120 nodes with four NVIDIA Hopper GPUs each. Its general-purpose partition uses Intel CPUs.
- The January 2026 AI upgrade contract covers acquisition, delivery, installation and maintenance for €129M. EuroHPC supplies half of the funding; Spain, Portugal and Türkiye supply the remainder.
- Spain’s AI Strategy 2024 budgeted €1.5B for 2024–25, including €90M for MareNostrum 5 and the Spanish Supercomputing Network. That €90M overlaps the strategy total. Its relationship to the later AI Factory contract is not reconciled.
- The dollar figure converts the €1.5B strategy budget at US$1.0818 per euro on 14 May 2024, BSC’s publication date, from the Federal Reserve’s H.10 series distributed by FRED. The three procurement components below have their own dates and carry no dollar equivalent.
Evidence, 18 entries
Hardware records
NVIDIA H100
Spain
Vendor: NVIDIA
Count: 4,480
Status: Operational
Scope: Physical hardware
Organisation and role
BSC MareNostrum 5 ACC partition (government/EuroHPC)
Source
MareNostrum 5 accelerated partition: 1,120 nodes with four GPUs each. Primary source
Funding
Headline amount
Spain
~$1.62B
The amount includes an estimate.
Government funding
Spain
~$1.62B
The amount includes an estimate.
EUR 1.5B National AI Strategy 2024
Spain
Kind: Government
Amount: $1.62B
MareNostrum 5 procurement (€151.41M; EuroHPC and Spain/Portugal/Türkiye consortium)
Spain
Kind: Government
MareNostrum 5 AI upgrade (€129M, January 2026; EuroHPC and participating countries)
Spain
Kind: Government
MareNostrum 5 and Spanish Supercomputing Network (€90M within the €1.5B strategy)
Spain
Kind: Government
Government spending
No paid figure stated in the government’s documents
No government document states what has been spent under the EUR 1,500 million AI Strategy 2024. IGAE’s execution statistics record two payments from its Recovery Plan lines: the whole EUR 300 million 2026 credit for a voluntary contribution to the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, paid by 31 August 2026, and EUR 12.88 million to BSC-CNS for the AI Factory in 2025.
Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2024 (funded from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and its addendum)
The whole programme. The strategy is the programme record's umbrella: it includes EUR 90 million to strengthen MareNostrum 5 for AI, and the government's AI Factory co-funding and its EuroHPC contribution are paid from the Recovery Plan lines that fund it. The budget is a cabinet-approved envelope spread over many Recovery Plan budget lines in several ministries; no budget programme or report carries the strategy as one line.
Approved by the government: the AI Strategy 2024’s €1.5 billion two-year envelope, January 2024 to December 2025. Printed as “1.500 millones de euros”. About $1.6B at the reference rate of 14 May 2024. La estrategia se desplegará durante los años 2024 y 2025 y está dotada con 1.500 millones de euros procedentes del Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia y de su adenda, que se suman a los 600 millones ya movilizados. (The strategy will be deployed during 2024 and 2025 and is endowed with 1,500 million euros from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and its addendum, in addition to the 600 million already mobilised.)
La Moncloa, Gobierno de España, El Gobierno aprueba la Estrategia de Inteligencia Artificial 2024 (Consejo de Ministros, resumen de la rueda de prensa, 14/05/2024), section "El Gobierno aprueba la Estrategia de Inteligencia Artificial 2024", 14 May 2024
Announced: €600 million, 14 May 2024. Printed as “600 millones”. Earlier AI investment the government describes as "already mobilised", outside the EUR 1,500 million; "mobilised" is not a payment figure. La estrategia se desplegará durante los años 2024 y 2025 y está dotada con 1.500 millones de euros procedentes del Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia y de su adenda, que se suman a los 600 millones ya movilizados. (The strategy will be deployed during 2024 and 2025 and is endowed with 1,500 million euros from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and its addendum, in addition to the 600 million already mobilised.)
La Moncloa, Gobierno de España, El Gobierno aprueba la Estrategia de Inteligencia Artificial 2024 (Consejo de Ministros, resumen de la rueda de prensa, 14/05/2024), section "El Gobierno aprueba la Estrategia de Inteligencia Artificial 2024", 14 May 2024
Announced: €90 million, 14 May 2024. Printed as “90 millones de euros”. The strategy's planned investment to strengthen MareNostrum 5 for AI; inside the EUR 1,500 million. el MareNostrum, que recibirá una inversión de 90 millones de euros para mejorar sus prestaciones en el ámbito de la inteligencia artificial y facilitar su acceso a la industria. (MareNostrum, which will receive an investment of 90 million euros to improve its performance in artificial intelligence and ease industry's access to it.)
La Moncloa, Gobierno de España, El Gobierno aprueba la Estrategia de Inteligencia Artificial 2024 (Consejo de Ministros, resumen de la rueda de prensa, 14/05/2024), section "El Gobierno aprueba la Estrategia de Inteligencia Artificial 2024", 14 May 2024
Voluntary contribution to the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking for an AI gigafactory or equivalent AI infrastructure (Recovery Plan budget line 3350 46PA 498, component 16 investment 1, National AI Strategy, Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service)
A part of the programme. Spain’s own Recovery Plan money paid to the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking towards an AI gigafactory or equivalent AI infrastructure, under component 16, investment 1 (National AI Strategy). The 2026 credit was created by budget modification (initial credit nil; definitive credit EUR 300,000,000.00), and IGAE records it paid in full by 31 August 2026. A contribution to an international body is a payment by Spain; the Joint Undertaking’s own use of it belongs to the EuroHPC row, whose paid figure counts only Union money. Whether the government counts it inside the AI Strategy 2024’s EUR 1,500 million is not stated.
In a budget estimate: the €300 million 2026 credit for Spain’s voluntary contribution to the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, January 2026 to December 2026. Printed as “300.000.000,00”. About $349M at the reference rate of 31 Aug 2026. 3350 46PA 498 -Contribución voluntaria Euro-HPC para gigafábrica de IA o infraestructura de IA equivalente - 300.000.000,00 300.000.000,00 (3350 46PA 498 Voluntary contribution to Euro-HPC for an AI gigafactory or equivalent AI infrastructure: initial credit nil; definitive credit 300,000,000.00; net recognised obligations 300,000,000.00 (euros).)
Intervención General de la Administración del Estado (IGAE), Ministerio de Hacienda, Estadísticas de ejecución del Presupuesto del Estado, hasta el 31 de agosto de 2026 (Mecanismo de Recuperación y Resiliencia, Transformación Digital y de la Función Pública), page 1185, "Estado de ejecución por aplicación no PGE", servicio 3350, 31 Aug 2026
Paid out: €300 million by 31 Aug 2026. Printed as “300.000”. 8 of the budget’s 12 months had passed. About $349M at the reference rate of 31 Aug 2026. 46PA-C16.I01 Estrategia Nacional de IA - - 300.000 300.000 300.000 300.000 300.000 300.000 100,0 498 -A Euro-HPC para gigafábrica de IA o equivalente. MRR - - 300.000 300.000 300.000 300.000 300.000 300.000 100,0 (C16.I01 National AI Strategy: initial credit nil, modifications 300,000, adjusted credit 300,000, authorised 300,000, committed 300,000, net recognised obligations 300,000, payments made 300,000 (thousand euros), 100%; of which concept 498 "To Euro-HPC for an AI gigafactory or equivalent. MRR", same amounts.)
Intervención General de la Administración del Estado (IGAE), Ministerio de Hacienda, Estadísticas de ejecución del Presupuesto del Estado, hasta el 31 de agosto de 2026 (Mecanismo de Recuperación y Resiliencia, Transformación Digital y de la Función Pública), page 226, Mecanismo de Recuperación y Resiliencia, Transformación Digital y de la Función Pública (miles de euros; columns 7 obligaciones reconocidas netas, 8 pagos realizados), 31 Aug 2026
Spanish government co-funding of the BSC AI Factory (Ministries for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service and for Science, Innovation and Universities)
A part of the programme. The national share of the EuroHPC AI Factory hosted by BSC-CNS. The Generalitat de Catalunya's EUR 14 million, other countries' contributions and the EuroHPC JU's share (eurohpc row) are excluded.
Announced by the government: the government’s €61.8 million AI Factory investment. Printed as “61.76 million euros”. About $65M at the reference rate of 10 Dec 2024. The Government of Spain, through the Ministries for Digital Transformation and Public Function and Science, Innovation and Universities, will invest 61.76 million euros in the first Artificial Intelligence factory in our country.
La Moncloa, Gobierno de España, The Government will invest nearly 62 million euros in the first Artificial Intelligence factory in Spain (10/12/2024), paragraph beginning "The Government of Spain, through the Ministries", 10 Dec 2024
Paid out: €12.9 million, 31 Dec 2025. Printed as “12.883”. Payment in 2025 from the Ministry of Science’s Recovery Plan line 2850 46QB 74953 (“Al BSC para el proyecto FACTORY IA”, component 17 investment 2) to BSC-CNS, the AI Factory’s host: IGAE records obligations and payments of 12,883 thousand euros (12,882,698.09 euros on page 1183). No government document reports BSC’s own spending of it. Kept beside the line, not as its paid figure, because the release states no budget period and 2024 payments on the line were not read. 74953-Al BSC: proyecto FACTORY IA. Supercomputación en IA. MRR - - 12.883 12.883 12.883 12.883 12.883 12.883 100,0 (74953 To BSC: AI FACTORY project. Supercomputing for AI. MRR: initial credit nil, modifications 12,883, adjusted credit 12,883, authorised 12,883, committed 12,883, net recognised obligations 12,883, payments made 12,883 (thousand euros), 100%.)
Intervención General de la Administración del Estado (IGAE), Ministerio de Hacienda, Estadísticas de ejecución del Presupuesto del Estado, hasta el 31 de diciembre de 2025 (Mecanismo de Recuperación y Resiliencia, Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades), page 221, Mecanismo de Recuperación y Resiliencia, Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (miles de euros; columns 7 obligaciones reconocidas netas, 8 pagos realizados), 31 Dec 2025
State (AGE) transfers to BSC-CNS under the financing agreement of 23 December 2020 for 2020–2029, and the State's interest-free MareNostrum 5 loan
A budget covering more than the AI programme. Core State funding of the whole BSC-CNS consortium (current and capital transfers), which hosts MareNostrum 5 and the AI Factory; broader than the programme. Transfers to the consortium are releases to an implementing body.
Approved by the government: the State’s €115 million commitment to BSC-CNS under the 2020–2029 financing agreement, January 2020 to December 2029. Printed as “115.097.049,29”. About $140M at the reference rate of 23 Dec 2020. Total 72.402.000,00 42.695.049,29 115.097.049,29 35.154.038,00 24.000.024,67 59.154.062,67 174.251.111,96 Fuente: Convenio suscrito el 23 de diciembre de 2020, para la financiación del BSC-CNS en el periodo 2020-2029 (Total: State (AGE) transfers current 72,402,000.00, capital 42,695,049.29, sum 115,097,049.29; Generalitat transfers current 35,154,038.00, capital 24,000,024.67, sum 59,154,062.67; total 174,251,111.96. Source: agreement signed on 23 December 2020 for financing BSC-CNS in 2020-2029.)
Tribunal de Cuentas (published by the Congreso de los Diputados), Informe de fiscalización del "Consorcio Barcelona Supercomputing Center–Centro Nacional de Supercomputación" (BSC-CNS), ejercicios 2015 a 2022 (Informe n.º 1.556), Anexo 11 "Financiación del BSC-CNS periodo 2020-2029", PDF page 93 (printed page 89 of the annex index), 29 Feb 2024
Released: €47.9 million, 31 Dec 2022. Printed as “47.888.247,60 euros”. Interest-free State loan to BSC-CNS, disbursed in 2020–2022 and linked by the audit to MareNostrum 5 site and acquisition work ("un préstamo de la AGE por 47,9 millones de euros", paragraph 2-60 d, PDF page 36); repayable from 2023. A loan to the implementing consortium, not spending. Además, la AGE concede un préstamo al BSC-CNS por importe de 47.888.247,60 euros a interés del 0 %, materializado en los ejercicios 2020-2022 (In addition, the State grants BSC-CNS a loan of 47,888,247.60 euros at 0% interest, disbursed in 2020-2022)
Tribunal de Cuentas (published by the Congreso de los Diputados), Informe de fiscalización del "Consorcio Barcelona Supercomputing Center–Centro Nacional de Supercomputación" (BSC-CNS), ejercicios 2015 a 2022 (Informe n.º 1.556), Anexo 11, note under the table, PDF page 93, 29 Feb 2024
Searched, 6 places
La Moncloa (Council of Ministers summaries and news) and the Ministry for Digital Transformation: Council of Ministers summary of 14 May 2024 (strategy approval); news of 10 Dec 2024 (AI Factory); web search for any later balance or monitoring report of the AI Strategy 2024 (2025–2026). The EUR 1,500 million envelope for 2024–2025, the EUR 90 million MareNostrum measure and the EUR 61.76 million AI Factory investment; no execution or payment figure for the strategy and no monitoring report found. La Moncloa (Council of Ministers summaries and news) and the Ministry for Digital Transformation, 2 Nov 2026
Recovery Plan portal (planderecuperacion.gob.es): V Informe de Ejecución del Plan de Recuperación (June 2025, data to 31 May 2025); list of execution reports 2021–2025; component 16 page; addendum component 16 document (Sept 2023). The reports measure calls published ("convocado") and awards resolved ("resuelto"), not payments; MareNostrum 5 appears as EUR 51 million among "principales actuaciones" without a spending measure; component 16 "inversión total estimada 540 millones de euros". No figure for the AI Strategy 2024. Recovery Plan portal (planderecuperacion.gob.es), 2 Nov 2026
IGAE monthly budget-execution statistics (Mecanismo de Recuperación y Resiliencia section and execution by budget line): MENSUAL 12-25 (to 31 Dec 2025) and MENSUAL 08-26 (to 31 Aug 2026, the latest; MENSUAL 09-26 returned 404). Year-to-date execution by budget line, not by strategy: in 2026, EUR 300 million obligations and payments for a voluntary contribution to EuroHPC (C16.I01); in 2025, EUR 12.88 million transferred to BSC for the AI Factory (C17.I02) and C16.R01 lines (obligations 17,922 and payments 16,545 thousand euros). No line aggregates the AI Strategy 2024; earlier years were not read. IGAE monthly budget-execution statistics (Mecanismo de Recuperación y Resiliencia section and execution by budget line), 2 Nov 2026
Tribunal de Cuentas (audit office): Informe de fiscalización del Consorcio BSC-CNS, ejercicios 2015 a 2022 (approved 29 Feb 2024). BSC funding agreement 2020–2029 (State EUR 115.1 million), a EUR 47.9 million State loan for MareNostrum 5 work, and BSC's grant accounts to 2021; nothing on the AI Strategy 2024 or the AI Factory, which postdate the audit period. Tribunal de Cuentas (audit office), 2 Nov 2026
Congreso and Senado written answers: Web searches for Government answers on the AI Strategy 2024's execution (legislature XV); answer 184/96922 (Nov 2022, ENIA); Senado document link expedientdocblobservlet?legis=15&id=220568. Only the 2022 answer describing the ENIA's 2020–2025 actions without execution figures; the Senado link returned "Access Denied". No answer stating the 2024 strategy's executed spending was found. Congreso and Senado written answers, 2 Nov 2026
BSC-CNS transparency pages (audited annual accounts): Audited annual accounts page (search results list accounts up to 2023). Not readable: the site answered with an anti-bot challenge ("Making sure you're not a bot!"), which was not bypassed. BSC-CNS transparency pages (audited annual accounts), 2 Nov 2026
Still open
Whether the government counts the EuroHPC contribution and the AI Factory transfer inside the AI Strategy 2024's EUR 1,500 million (unverified).
BSC-CNS's own spending on the AI Factory and MareNostrum 5 (its audited accounts for 2024 and 2025) could not be read because bsc.es served an anti-bot challenge; the BOE publication of those accounts was not found.
IGAE execution for 2021–2024 was not read line by line; a cumulative series for component 16 and the other strategy lines would need each year's December statistics and a classification of which lines pay final recipients rather than agencies.
Partners
Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS)
Spain
Stage: Awarded
Notes
Hosts MareNostrum 5 and leads the BSC AI Factory, which provides computing access and technical support for AI development.
Qualifications
Programme-level disclosure
Source
Primary source, 10 Dec 2024
Open Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS)’s record
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT)
Spain
Stage: Empanelled
Notes
Represents Portugal in the BSC AI Factory consortium.
Qualifications
Programme-level disclosure
Source
Primary source, 10 Dec 2024
Open Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT)’s record
Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)
Spain
Stage: Empanelled
Notes
Represents Türkiye in the BSC AI Factory consortium.
Qualifications
Programme-level disclosure
Source
Primary source, 10 Dec 2024
Open Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)’s record
National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI București)
Spain
Stage: Empanelled
Notes
Represents Romania in the BSC AI Factory consortium.
Qualifications
Programme-level disclosure
Source
Primary source, 10 Dec 2024
Open National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics’ record
FSAS Technologies
Spain
Stage: Awarded
Notes
Leads the consortium with Telefónica contracted to expand MareNostrum 5’s AI capabilities in January 2026.
Qualifications
Programme-level disclosure
Source
Primary source, 26 Jan 2026
Telefonica
Spain
Stage: Awarded
Notes
Works with FSAS Technologies on the January 2026 MareNostrum 5 AI upgrade contract.
Qualifications
Programme-level disclosure
Source
Primary source, 26 Jan 2026
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
Spain
Stage: Empanelled
Notes
The science ministry participates in BSC’s public consortium and its funding agreement.
Qualifications
Programme-level disclosure
Source
Primary source, 23 Dec 2020
Open Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades’ record
Generalitat de Catalunya – Departament de Recerca i Universitats
Spain
Stage: Empanelled
Notes
Participates in BSC’s public consortium; the December 2024 AI Factory announcement allocated €14M from the Catalan government.
Qualifications
Programme-level disclosure
Source
Primary source, 10 Dec 2024
Open Generalitat de Catalunya – Departament de Recerca i Universitats’ record
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC)
Spain
Stage: Empanelled
Notes
University member of BSC’s public consortium and a party to its funding agreement.
Qualifications
Programme-level disclosure
Source
Primary source, 23 Dec 2020
Open Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC)’s record
Fabrication
TSMC
Fabricates the parts of these families: Hopper
Hopper The full GH100 GPU that powers the H100 GPU is fabricated using the TSMC 4N process customized for NVIDIA
NVIDIA, “NVIDIA Hopper Architecture In-Depth”, 2026-09-25
Identifiers
- Scrutica ID
- sovereign-es
- Country code
- ES
- Name in the record
- Spain: BSC AI Factory + MareNostrum 5 + AI Strategy 2024