Most US AI startups think about Europe as one market. It is not. It is 27 countries with their own languages, procurement habits and regulators. The first decision is not whether to go, it is where to start. We think the answer is Spain.
An economy that is growing
Spain has been the fastest growing of Europe's large economies. The European Commission puts real GDP growth at 2.8% in 2025 and 2.4% in 2026, driven by domestic demand and investment. The country reached a record 49.6 million people in January 2026.
Growth matters for a first deployment: budgets are opening, not closing.
The IBEX 35 is already buying AI
The IBEX 35 is the index of Spain's 35 largest listed companies: global banks, energy groups, telecoms, retailers and infrastructure builders. Several are moving fast on AI.
- Santander rolled out ChatGPT Enterprise to nearly 15,000 employees in two months, aiming for 30,000 by year end.
- BBVA is extending ChatGPT Enterprise to more than 120,000 employees after a first phase with 11,000.
Buying licences is the easy part. Connecting models to core banking, energy or telecom systems, under European compliance, is where deployments stall. That is the job of forward deployed engineers.
SMEs are the long tail
Small and medium companies are 99.9% of Spanish businesses and about 70% of private employment. Their AI adoption has been slower than in northern Europe: Eurostat shows one of the smallest increases in enterprise AI use between 2023 and 2024.
For a startup, that gap is the market. Once a product works inside one large account, the same playbook scales to thousands of mid-sized companies that need it packaged and supported.
Industry you can deploy into
Spain is not only services. It is the second largest vehicle producer in Europe, and the automotive sector alone is around 10% of GDP and 18% of exports. Add agrifood, energy and pharma, and there is a deep base of plants, supply chains and operations where AI moves from demo to measurable impact.
Public money behind adoption
The government's 2024 AI strategy commits €1.5 billion, funded through the EU recovery plan. Customers can co-finance projects, which shortens the path from pilot to contract.
How to use it
- Land one IBEX 35 account with a team embedded in their engineering, not a single contractor.
- Prove the deployment under European data and AI rules.
- Expand to mid-sized and industrial companies with the same playbook.
- Cover the rest of Europe from the same time zone as Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam.
Europe rewards whoever shows up in the room. Spain is the easiest room to start in.