Salvador Illa in Silicon Valley: Focus on Collaboration and Technology. Salvador Illa is meeting with leading Catalan professionals in Silicon Valley. He emphasizes a strategy centered on collaboration and technological development, contrasting his approach with that of the Madrid authorities.
The visit of Catalan President Salvador Illa to California reached a new level: on Wednesday, he held a series of meetings in the very heart of global technology — Silicon Valley. Illa emphasized that his government is focused on developing the technology sector and is open to international cooperation, in contrast to the confrontational policy he attributed to the Madrid authorities.
Meetings with industry leaders
As part of the trip, Illa met with a group of Catalan professionals working at companies such as Apple, Meta, NVIDIA, and Google. Participants included Google Vice President of Research Oriol Vinyals, Apple engineer Carles Olle, and GitHub Vice President at Microsoft Gemma Garriga. Illa stated that his goal was to hear these experts’ views on technology development prospects and on how Catalonia could become more attractive for investment.
A contrast with Madrid
Illa paid particular attention to comparing his approach with the actions of Madrid Community President Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who found herself at the center of a scandal following her trip to Mexico. According to Illa, the Catalan government always acts based on dialogue and cooperation, not conflict. He recalled that a similar approach was adopted during visits to Mexico, Japan, China, and South Korea.
Focus on open technologies
During the visit, Illa visited SiFive, a company developing processors based on the RISC-V architecture — an open alternative to traditional solutions from major manufacturers. A meeting is also scheduled at NVIDIA's headquarters to discuss the possibility of establishing new data centers in Barcelona. NVIDIA Vice President Rod Evans has already noted that the Catalan capital has one of the best technological ecosystems for such projects. Cooperation with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center plays an important role in these negotiations.
The symbolism of the location and its connection to innovation
The Rosewood Sand Hill hotel was chosen for the meeting with the Catalan tech community — an iconic Silicon Valley venue where investors and researchers often gather. It is here that OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, was founded. According to RUSSPAIN, Illa’s visit was a continuation of Catalonia’s strategy to integrate into the global technology landscape, which has previously been discussed in materials on the region's budget and educational initiatives, for example, in the publication about negotiations with teachers against the backdrop of a mass strike threat.
