MADRID, Aug 27 (Reuters) - U.S. asset manager Blackstone

is looking to expand its planned project to build data

centres in Spain's Aragon, with an additional investment of 4.3

billion euros ($5.03 billion) in the region striving to become a

major cloud computing hub.

Documents filed with the regional government showed that

aside from an initial investment of 7.5 billion euros over nine

years, that was disclosed in 2024, the world's largest

alternative asset manager plans a second phase to add capacity

at the same site, depending on demand from customers.

That second phase would take seven years to be completed,

the company said.

Blackstone follows tech giants such as Microsoft ( MSFT )

and Amazon ( AMZN ) in choosing the northeastern region, which

has around 20 data centre projects under evaluation.

The first phase would start in the second quarter of 2026,

the document said. It would comprise eight data centres, an

electricity substation, a photovoltaic power plant and

connections to the grid.

The company said it had signed renewable electricity supply

contracts for all its needs and its cooling systems will not use

water, a commodity that is often in short supply in Spain.

($1 = 0.8542 euros)