A company that didn’t exist two years ago just landed a billion-dollar data center deal, and it didn’t have to name the client to make the point.
Hscale, the Bain Capital-backed data center operator, signed a contract worth more than $1 billion with an unnamed hyperscale client for capacity at its Spanish facilities, one of the larger single deals to hit Europe’s AI infrastructure buildout this year.
The client will run cloud and AI workloads through the arrangement, and Hscale says the deal could eventually extend to cover capacity at its other EMEA data centers beyond Spain. Paul Berry-Selwood, Hscale’s chief commercial officer, called the agreement validation of the company’s ability to deliver complex, high-capacity infrastructure for what he described as the world’s most demanding cloud customers. He tied Spain’s appeal specifically to a combination of scale, connectivity, and access to renewable energy, framing the country as a natural fit for the next wave of AI and cloud services.
Hscale hasn’t disclosed which of its Spanish facilities will host the client, only that space will be ready in 2027. The company currently has two Spanish sites under development: BCN1 near Barcelona, planned for 50MW of capacity, and MAD1 near Madrid, a considerably larger 192MW facility.
The deal arrives less than two years after Bain launched Hscale to serve the EMEA market. The company already operates one active data center in Oslo, with two more Norwegian facilities in development, and it’s pursuing additional projects in Milan, London, Frankfurt, and Zaragoza. Bain built the company around an acquisition, buying an 80% stake in Aquila Group’s data center business, AQ Compute, back in 2023. Aquila retained the remaining 20% and still holds that stake in Hscale today. Oliver Schiebel, previously CEO of German data center operator Mainova Webhouse, leads the company.
For a relatively young operator, landing a nine-figure-plus contract this early signals real confidence from at least one hyperscale customer in Hscale’s ability to actually deliver on Spanish infrastructure, even before ground has fully broken on the facilities involved.
