76 interested parties want to build AI gigafactories in the EU

Henna Virkkunen, Vice-President of the EU Commission for Technical Sovereignty, sees the interest in building and operating four to five AI gigafactories on European soil as a great success. According to the EU Commission, 76 companies and organizations from 16 member states participated by the deadline on 20 June in order to build – up to 60 AI Gigafactories, partly via consortia. The interested parties had pledged to invest a total of over 230 billion euros over the next three to four years for this purpose, explained the Finn in Brussels on Monday. For its part, the Commission wants to ensure that 20 billion euros in funding is available for up to five such special AI data centers.

Virkkunen said, however, that it is still unclear whether more companies will be awarded the contract due to the high level of interest. However, the planned five AI factories will probably be built. The EU Commission will only determine the exact selection criteria with the final tender, which will be published by the end of the year, probably in November.

According to the Commissioner, top players from the IT sector and key players from the public sector have expressed their interest. This shows that the public-private partnership model in the EU is very effective. Virkkunen was confident that the initiative would become a "game changer". The aim is to make the international community a global leader in the field of artificial intelligence as a "powerhouse" and, in particular, to implement the next generation of AI models in the EU. The message is clear: "Now is the time to shape our AI future." Europe is the ideal place to invest.

Building up own capacities is crucial

The vast majority of AI companies, hardware and software companies, data centers and financial backers involved so far are European, the Commissioner emphasized. The focus of the project is on achieving sovereignty, i.e. building up their own capacities. However, industry giants from third countries such as the US company Nvidia could also participate. Talks were initially held with all players who had expressed an interest. One aim is also to encourage investment in data centers. One parameter here is energy efficiency in line with the EU's goal of climate neutrality. According to Virkkunen, the member states also attach great importance to this.

The Commission does not currently wish to publish the names of interested parties, as confidentiality has been linked to the call. However, various parties willing to invest have already published their participation themselves.

Lively interest in Germany

In Germany, there were originally efforts for a joint submission. However, an initiative by German tech companies such as SAP, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Ionos and the Schwarz Group failed as the parties involved were unable to agree on a concept. Several German consortia have now responded to the Commission's call with competing proposals. Deutsche Telekom has led the way with the announcement that an AI data center with the – comparatively low – capacity of at least 10,000 GPUs is to be built together with Nvidia within the next nine months. However, this commitment is to be seen in parallel with an application for the EU initiative, it said.

Ionos submitted an expression of interest for an AI Gigafactory with Hochtief by the deadline. The latest technology with an initial output of over 50,000 GPUs, scalable to over 100,000 GPUs, is to be used. The Schwarz Group, known for its subsidiaries Lidl and Kaufland, has now applied independently via its IT subsidiary Schwarz Digits as part of the EU call. It secured the Stuttgart High Performance Computing Center as a partner.

Bavaria also wants to become the location of an AI gigafactory with the "Blue Swan" project. The Free State refers to an AI ecosystem that includes the Munich Center for Machine Learning (MCML), the Leibniz Supercomputing Center, the HammerHAI consortium and international companies. As an "active supporter of a strong and powerful German consortium", Silicon Saxony has also brought itself into play as "Europe's largest microelectronics cluster". The consortium demands that the planned factories should not be built without European semiconductors.

(nie)