Google partnered with Telefonica to expand its cloud footprint in Spain and collaborate on new 5G applications, scoring another major deal in an effort to tap operator interest in edge computing.

As part of the deal, Google will use Telefonica’s infrastructure in Madrid to launch a cloud region, offering enterprises in the area access to products including its compute and app engines, and cloud storage.

Telefonica will use Google cloud services to strengthen its capabilities in machine learning, AI, data analytics and application development. The companies will also create a portfolio of edge compute-enabled 5G products.

In a statement, Telefonica CEO Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete pitched the move as a way to aid Spain’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, arguing it will help “all types of organisations not only to recover the ground lost by the crisis, but also to promote their digital transformation and strengthen themselves for the future”.

The deal is the latest operator win for Google’s cloud platform, building on a partnership signed with AT&T in March.

It also heightens a rivalry between Google and Microsoft, which inked its own deal with Telefonica in February to use the operator’s infrastructure to expand its cloud footprint in Spain.