AI gigafactories and education: This is how Brussels wants to accelerate AI adoption in Europe

The European Commission has adopted the AI Continent Action Plan to become “a global leader in artificial intelligence.”

As European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set out at the AI Action Summit last February in Paris, Europe has to transform its strong traditional industries and talent pool into “powerful engines of AI innovation and acceleration” to stay in the race for AI dominance.

Artificial intelligence offers boundless potential, but only 13.5% of European companies have adopted AI in their day-to-day operations.

On Wednesday, the European Commission launched its AI Continent Action Plan to boost Europe’s AI innovation capabilities. The Commission wants to strengthen Europe’s supercomputing infrastructure by building 13 AI factories to support AI startups, industry, and researchers in developing AI models and applications.

In addition, Brussels wants to help set up multiple AI gigafactories equipped with almost 100,000 state-of-the-art AI chips.

“They will integrate massive computing power and data centers to train and develop complex AI models at unprecedented scale. The AI gigafactories will lead the next wave of frontier AI models and maintain the EU's strategic autonomy in critical industrial sectors and science, requiring public and private investments,” a press release of the European Commission reads.

Brussels wants to invest €20 billion to build five AI gigafactories across Europe.

Another pillar of the Commission’s AI Continent Action Plan is to create so-called Data Labs to increase access to large and high-quality data. Furthermore, the Commission will launch its Apply AI Strategy in the coming months to improve the industrial use and adoption of tailored AI solutions.

Lastly, Brussels intends to strengthen AI skills and talents by introducing AI fellowships and an AI skills academy and simplify AI regulation by introducing an AI Act service desk to help businesses comply with the AI Act.

“Artificial intelligence is at the heart of making Europe more competitive, secure, and technologically sovereign. The global race for AI is far from over. The time to act is now. This Action Plan outlines key areas where efforts need to intensify to make Europe a leading AI Continent,” Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, states.