Germany wants to lead in AI: Nvidia and Telekom participate in Gigafabrik

As expected, Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang also met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) on his European tour on Friday. The latter emphasized Germany's "claim to leadership" in artificial intelligence (AI), the German government announced following the personal meeting. The focus of the exchange was on "further strategic cooperation to strengthen Germany as a location for AI". In particular, it was about building a sovereign infrastructure and promoting the ecosystem surrounding the key technology in Germany.

Specifically, according to the German government, Huang has promised that Nvidia will "provide modern AI hardware, software solutions and specialist expertise" as part of the collaboration. Together with German business partners, the US company will invest in an IT infrastructure in Germany that is particularly geared towards the needs of local industry. All of the parties involved are placing "particular emphasis on security standards and data sovereignty".

As part of the initiative for an "Industrial AI Cloud", Nvidia will "realize at least one AI gigafactory in Germany", according to reports from Berlin. Deutsche Telekom is a partner for this initial project. At the same time, it announced that it would be working with Nvidia to build "the world's first industrial AI cloud for European manufacturers on German soil" by 2026 at the latest. This is to be created within the next nine months with a capacity of at least 10,000 GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) and will also be accessible to start-ups and research institutions. The government sees the project as "complementary to the EU initiative to set up AI gigafactories".

The state wants to be an anchor customer

The demand for computers to carry out AI tasks has led to a boom in manufacturers of high-performance servers and special chips and processors. AI servers are booming with high-performance chips from manufacturers such as Nvidia. According to Telekom, the company wants to bring in DGX-B200 systems and RTX-Pro server GPUs for the industrial cloud, on which "Cuda-X, RTX and Omniverse accelerated workloads from leading software providers run". The Magenta Group itself will provide its "secure, sovereign and fast infrastructure" and will be "responsible for data centers, operations, sales, security and AI solutions". The Bonn-based company also wants to guarantee that European values such as data protection are adhered to and that information is only processed in accordance with European standards.

The German company Neura Robotics wants to use the computing resources to operate training centers for cognitive robots, for example. According to the government, the state will act as an "anchor customer". Public computing needs are to be pooled to support the domestic ecosystem. At the same time, a national strategy "to promote the operation and establishment of data centers", for example with planning facilitation, is in the works. The parties involved also want to promote the expansion of AI skills. They are looking at educational programs, training courses and qualification offers in collaboration with Nvidia's Deep Learning Institute.

An important step towards digital sovereignty?

Merz welcomed the commitment: "Investments in strategic AI infrastructures are central to our country's innovative strength." The cooperation with Nvidia could be an significant step towards the digital sovereignty and economic future of the Republic. Huang explained: "By building Europe's first industrial AI infrastructure, we are enabling the region's leading industrial companies to drive forward simulation-based, AI-controlled manufacturing." Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Höttges emphasized: "Europe's technological future needs a sprint, not a walk in the park. We must seize the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence now, revolutionize our industry and secure a leading position in the global technology competition."

As part of its AI strategy, the German government set itself the goal back in 2019: Germany should be at the forefront of the international competition to become the number one location for artificial intelligence. According to studies, however, Germany still lags countries such as the USA and China in this area. Germany is also at risk of being left behind in the construction of data centers.

(nen)