The President of the Government of Spain accompanies the King at the opening of the GSMA Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2026

The President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, and King Felipe VI, during the twentieth edition of the Mobile World Congress (Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa)

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, accompanied His Majesty King Felipe VI at the opening of the GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2026, a globally significant event for the telecommunications and technology sector, which is celebrating its 20th edition in the Catalan capital. Over the past two decades, the MWC has established itself as the leading event for the connectivity, telecommunications, and mobile technology industries. The head of the Executive was accompanied by the Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, and the Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, Óscar López. Following the inauguration, he held meetings with senior executives from Amazon and the telecommunications group Orange.

In the first meeting, Amazon's Senior Vice President David Zapolsky informed the President of the Government of Spain of the new €18 billion investment in Spain. This is the largest investment ever made by the group's cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services, which offers on-demand technology infrastructure services-computing, storage, databases, analytics, and artificial intelligence-to businesses and public administrations outside the United States.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, and the Senior Vice-President of Amazon Web Services, David Zapolsky, during their meeting | Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

This new investment is in addition to the €15 billion already announced for 2024, which will expand its data centre infrastructure in Aragon over the next ten years, exceeding €33 billion and generating more than 6,700 direct jobs; of these, approximately 1,800 will be related to the construction of server manufacturing, logistics, and recycling facilities included in the plan.

Pedro Sánchez also met with the CEO of the Orange telecommunications group, Christel Heydemann, and they discussed the company's investment plans in Spain for the coming months, in line with the industrial plan announced by the operator for 2024 following the merger with MasOrange. The president also emphasised the importance of advancing Europe's digital sovereignty and the key role of telephone operators in this challenge for Spain and the European Union as a whole.

Non official translation