In a new bid to get the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) to move from Hawaii, which has blocked its construction for more than a decade, the Spanish government has put together a $1.14 billion package that would not only pay for construction on the Canary Islands, but would finance an additional half century of operations.

The package is conditional on the TMT International Observatory formally choosing La Palma as its construction site. The financing architecture has three pillars and two additional contingent instruments.

The first pillar is €400 million (approximately $456 million USD) from Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, routed through the Centre for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI). This figure was first pledged a year ago in July 2025 as Spain’s initial bid.

The second pillar is a €300 million (approximately $342 million USD) loan from the EIB [European Investment Bank] itself — subject to satisfactory completion of the bank’s technical, financial, and legal due diligence and approval by its governing bodies.

The third is a potential €300 million (approximately $342 million USD) participation from the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), Spain’s state development finance institution, evaluated under equivalent conditions to the EIB loan but subject to its own separate analysis. Spain’s export credit agency, Cesce, may also provide coverage instruments, and the EIB has left open the possibility of expanding its support through intermediated financing mechanisms or guarantees.

TMT has been blocked because of local protesters in Hawaii — who apparently oppose the presence of whites in Hawaii as well as on the mountain Mauna Kea — and have been supported by the state government run by the Democrats. In response, the consortium building TMT had chosen the Canary Islands as its back-up location, but that choice meant that Japan pulled out of the partnership. In addition, the National Science Foundation has withdrawn all funding from the project. Thus, nothing could be built anywhere.

Since late last year TMT has been in serious negotiations with Spain. Apparently it wanted Spain to come up with more cash before committing to the move.

Spain has now done so. Whether TMT will accept remains uncertain. The Canary Islands is not as good a site for the telescope than Mauna Kea in Hawaii. And it appears there is also local opposition to the project. But considering TMT does not have the funding in Hawaii, it seems that either it accepts this offer or the telescope will never be built.

It seems a far better choice for TMT would be to get Spain to use that billion dollars to build a really good space telescope. The pay-off would be far better than building a ground-based telescope — no matter how large — that will have to look through both the atmosphere as well as the millions of satellites expected to be launched in the next decade.