German consortium in conversations to build AI data center says Telekom, says Telekom

Frankfurt (Reuters) -Deutsche Telekom has partnered with SAP, web hosting firm Ionos and the unlisted trader Schwarz to get support to build a center for artificial intelligence in Germany, it states on Tuesday. The European Commission has revealed plans this year to provide $ 20 billion to financing to set up AI data centers to catch up with the US and China. You may be interested in Newspaper Trade Blatt on Tuesday that the consortium is in talks to build one of the five centers, known as AI GigaFactories, the EU planning to support. “The opportunity to create our own independent infrastructure for this is now,” Christine Knackfuss-Nicolic, chief technology officer at Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems division, told Reuters, adding that the company is seeking a leading role. “Rarely before the signs and the general will in Europe were as strong as today.” The EU project, which is intended to enable the BLOC to create its own AI models, will face challenges, ranging from slides to finding suitable sites and electricity. Under a government coalition agreement entered into earlier this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives and the Social Democrats said they aimed to have at least one of the centers built in Germany. Trade Blatt said the deadline to give initial interest expressions to the EU is June 20. Ionos told Reuters that it was talking about a German AI Gigafactory with various businesses and the German government. “In principle, we regard the European Commission initiative as an important step towards greater digital sovereignty, and are interested to participate,” the company said, adding that there are still questions. SAP and Schwarz did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Ludwig Burger, editing by Friederike Heine, Thomas Seythal and Jan Harvey)