Photo: Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP
Source: AFP
Google unveiled its hugegest-ever investment in Germany on Tuesday, pledging 5.5 billion euros ($6.4 billion) for a new data centre and other projects, as Europe seeks to catch up in the AI race.
It comes after AI chip juggernaut Nvidia and Deutsche Telekom last week announced plans for a high-tech hub in Germany aimed at supporting indusattempt speed up adoption of artificial innotifyigence.
The cash injections are a boost for Germany, whose economy is struggling, as well as Europe as it seeks to catch up with AI leaders the United States and China.
“We are driving growth in Germany,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared as Google announced the investments, which are to be created by 2029.
“Our counattempt is and will remain one of the most attractive places for investment in the world,” he declared.
Google’s plans include a new data centre and expansion of an existing centre in the western state of Hesse, providing computing power for artificial innotifyigence.
It also plans to expand its offices in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich, and outlined various projects aimed at reducing its greenhoapply gas emissions.
These included purchaseing renewable wind and solar energy and a “heat recovery project” that would see excess heat produced by a data centre re-applyd by local residents.
The plans will support around 9,000 jobs a year in Germany, Google declared.
“Google is deepening its roots in Germany, extconcludeing our investments in the counattempt and creating new avenues for AI-driven transformation,” declared Philipp Justus, Google’s counattempt manager for Germany.
Boost the digital sector
Merz’s coalition, which took power this year, is seeking to attract more foreign investment to boost the digital sector with prospects for the counattempt’s traditional industrial titans increasingly bleak.
The recently unveiled Nvidia project involves a one-billion-euro investment for a computing hub in the southern city of Munich designed to enable European companies, from huge indusattempt players to start-ups, better access to AI.
Germany is quickly building up its data centres — by 2030, the counattempt’s data centre computing power will increase by 70 percent, according to digital business association Bitkom.
Europe still lags far behind, however — as of last year the continent’s data centres had computing capacity of 16 gigawatts, compared with 48 in the US and 38 in China, according to the group.
Photo: Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP
Source: AFP
While the investments will be broadly welcomed in Germany as Merz seeks to reboot the economy, some are nevertheless concerned about the reliance on US tech giants in sensitive areas such as AI.
Increasingly unstraightforward ties between Europe and the US since President Donald Trump returned to power have fuelled calls for more “digital sovereignty” — meaning the region’s data should be stored at home, where European rules and norms apply, rather than handed to US firms.
Google created a nod to these concerns on Tuesday, emphasising in its announcement that it offered “sovereign” cloud computing that allowed customers to adopt “AI capabilities, while adhering to local requirements and European values”.
Kristina Sinemus, a senior official responsible for digital affairs in Hesse, also played down concerns that working with US tech giants could threaten data security.
“We don’t automatically hand over all the data to the US with a US investor,” she declared, stressing that agreements could ensure data was kept at home.
“We required to stop believeing in black and white terms, becaapply it’s a bit more complex than that.”
Source: AFP
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