Ivo Ivanov (DE-CIX) highlights Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon as a “unique triangle of digital capital distribution”

Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon Not only are they DE-CIX internet exchange points in the Iberian Peninsula, but together they represent a capital distribution triangle that increasingly acts as an interconnected digital ecosystem rather than independent markets.

Los internet exchange points –in which Internet and content network providers connect their infrastructures to exchange data traffic– have a direct impact on network performance, latency and stability.

It is what will allow a robot to act in the way it has been designed, that virtual reality applications work in real time and everyone celebrates their team’s goals at the same time, without neighbors having a late game broadcast.

Its role is reinforced if one takes into account that uninterrupted internet is already as important or almost as important as having water or electricity, according to data collected from a recent DE-CIX study.

This global internet exchange point operator closed 2025 with more than 4,300 connected networks (+25%) and 220 terabits of capacity (+40%), and so far this year, it has already experienced 10 percent growth in connected networks, until approaching 4,700, and in capacity, with 242 terabit.

“What we see is a growth that became structural. There are no longer cycles, growth is consistent”noted the executive director of DE-CIX, Ivo Ivanov, in a meeting with the press attended by Europa Press.

Ivanov also shared some insights into the southern European region, which he stated is evolving to become a multicontinental convergence point, with the capacity to link Europe with Africa and America.

This region has more than 500 connected networks and 17 exchange points between Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, and is expected to experience growth to meet the demand for cloud services and artificial intelligence.

Likewise, the manager has influenced the “unique capital distribution triangle in the world” represented by Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon. Although the Iberian Peninsula will be discussed in depth in September, during the Atlantic Convergence 2026, with the presentation of the data from the study ‘Iberia as a Distributed Digital Capital’, Ivanov has anticipated some data about it.

The points of the Iberian Peninsula increasingly act as an interconnected digital ecosystem rather than as independent markets. It houses more than one hundred data centers, has more than 800 connected networks and the infrastructure has an installed capacity of 436 MW. DE-CIX alone connects more than 340 networks.

Growth is also expected to be driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence, the cloud, investment in hyperscalers and new deployments of submarine cables.

Spain stands out as the link point between the connection of the Atlantic and the European continent, and within this country, DE-CIX has highlighted the exchange point that operates Madrid, that in November will celebrate ten years, and that in 2025 increased its connection capacity by 49 percentup to 11.5 terabits.