NVIDIA partners with Deutsche Telekom to build Europe's largest AI center: deploying up to 10,000 GPUs, increasing Germany's AI computing power by 50%!

NVIDIA and Deutsche Telekom AG announced on Tuesday that the two companies will jointly build a data center worth €1 billion (USD 1.2 billion) in Munich, Germany, aimed at strengthening European infrastructure to support the operation of complex artificial intelligence systems. This project is seen as one of the largest AI infrastructure investments in Europe and is set to begin operations in the first quarter of 2026.

The facility will enhance Germany's AI computing capacity by approximately 50%, representing a significant move for the largest economy in Europe to develop a local AI ecosystem and compete with the United States. The project was officially announced at an event in Berlin, attended by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges, as well as executives from SAP, Deutsche Bank, and two German government ministers.

Despite the substantial scale of this investment, it still highlights the significant gap between Europe and the U.S. According to the statement, the project plans to deploy up to 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), which is only a small fraction of the scale of large facilities in the U.S. Tech giants like Microsoft and Google, along with startups like OpenAI, are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to build AI computing capabilities.

Industrial AI Cloud Strategy Emphasized

This project is described by NVIDIA and its partners as an "Industrial AI Cloud," which differs from the large-scale data centers used in the U.S. to create large language models. The German site, located within an existing facility in Munich, will host AI models and help connect them to industrial data sources, attempting to accelerate the adoption of this technology in the industrial sector.

European business leaders have been calling for the continent to fully leverage its manufacturing advantages, rather than competing with the U.S. and China in consumer-facing technology. As the largest software company in Europe, SAP will provide its business technology platform and applications for the data center.

German Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger stated at the press conference, "Without AI, there is no sustainable prosperity, and without AI, there is no competitive advantage. AI could be Germany's comeback."

Germany's AI Ambitions Face Real-World Challenges

This strategy comes at a time when Germany's previous attempts to create national AI champions have faced setbacks. The local startup Aleph Alpha initially positioned itself as a European alternative to OpenAI, but the company has failed to keep pace with the rapid developments in the industry and has shifted away from building large AI models.

The scale of investment also highlights the gap between Europe and the U.S. A single data center project being developed by SoftBank Group, OpenAI, and Oracle in Texas will use approximately 500,000 GPUs, far exceeding the 10,000 chips planned for the German project.

The scale of this project is also smaller than some previously announced European data center plans, including OpenAI's Stargate project in Norway, a $10 billion project supported by Brookfield Asset Management in Sweden, and the UAE's commitment to invest up to €50 billion in building a campus in France.

EU AI Development Plan Progressing Steadily

In February of this year, the EU announced a €200 billion plan to support AI development in the region, aiming to double the capacity to support such systems in the next 5 to 7 years Deutsche Telekom has been involved in negotiations with other companies to promote the construction of the so-called AI super factory. However, this process has been slow to start, and the European Union has not yet clearly planned how to review bids and allocate funds.

According to a statement released by Deutsche Telekom on Tuesday, this facility is one of the largest data centers in Europe.

Jensen Huang stated in the announcement, "We are introducing NVIDIA AI and robotics technology, ushering in a new era of industrial transformation in Germany." He described the project as one of the largest advanced AI chip deployments in Germany