EU pledges $200 billion in AI spending in bid to catch up with US, China
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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The European Union pledged to mobilize 200 billion euros ($206.15 billion) to invest in artificial intelligence as the bloc seeks to catch up with the U.S. and China in the race to train the most complex models.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the bloc wants to supercharge its ability to compete with the U.S. and China in AI. The plan—dubbed InvestAI—includes a new 20 billion-euro fund for so-called AI gigafactories, facilities that rely on powerful chips to train the most complex AI models.
“We want Europe to be one of the leading AI continents, and this means embracing a life where AI is everywhere," von der Leyen said at the AI Action Summit in Paris. The announcement underscores efforts from the EU to position itself as a key player in the AI race. The bloc has been lagging behind the U.S.
and China since OpenAI’s 2022 release of ChatGPT ushered in a spending bonanza. The EU pledge comes a month after Washington announced Stargate, an AI joint venture that aims to build data centers in the U.S. for OpenAI.
OpenAI, SoftBank Group, Oracle and MGX are the initial equity funders in Stargate, while Arm, Microsoft and Nvidia are technology partners. The companies are committing $100 billion initially and plan to invest up to $500 billion over the next four years. Meanwhile, Beijing has also made strides in the technology.
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