MADRID, June 14 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT ) 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 ( MSFT ), which recently announced a 2.1 billion euro

investment in data centres in Madrid, declined to comment on the

plans in Aragon.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) follows its main competitor Amazon's ( AMZN ) cloud

computing unit AWS in setting eyes on Aragon. Amazon ( AMZN ) announced

last month it would invest 15.7 billion euros over the next 10

years to build data centres in Aragon.

Amazon ( AMZN ) 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)