Microsoft to invest $7.16 billion in new data centres in northeastern Spain

MADRID (Reuters) - Microsoft plans to invest 6.69 billion euros ($7.16 billion) to develop new data centres in Spain's northeastern region of Aragon, which is becoming a major cloud computing hub within Europe.

Aragon's regional government said the U.S. tech giant had applied for a construction permit to build data centres at a site outside the city of Zaragoza, confirming a report by local newspaper El Heraldo.

The company's investment will be spread out over 10 years, the regional government said.

Microsoft, which recently announced a 2.1 billion euro investment in data centres in Madrid, declined to comment on the plans in Aragon.

Microsoft follows its main competitor Amazon's cloud computing unit AWS in setting eyes on Aragon. Amazon announced last month it would invest 15.7 billion euros over the next 10 years to build data centres in Aragon.

Amazon said it would power its data centres fully with renewable energy.

The Aragon region has a large wind power capacity.

Zaragoza, Spain's fifth-largest city, has become a logistics and transportation hub, It is located halfway between Madrid and Barcelona, Spain's biggest urban areas, and in the middle of the main trade corridor connecting the Iberian Peninsula to France and the rest of Europe.

($1 = 0.9340 euros)

(Reporting by Inti Landauro; editing by David Latona and Jason Neely)