European CEOs Call for Investment in AI Infrastructure

President Donald Trump’s announcement of Stargate, a $500 billion investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, reportedly spurred calls for a similar initiative in Europe.

SAP CEO Christian Klein told CNBC in a report posted Thursday (Jan. 23) that Europe’s lawmakers and businesses should work to implement AI, as the technology will boost the competitiveness of all industries.

“My hope is that … everything that’s happened in the United States is certainly a wake-up call,” Klein said, per the report. “We need to see proof, but I hope now Europe comes together and form a union in digitization, it’s super important.”

Siemens CEO Roland Busch said in the report that Europe needs more data centers to power AI tools.

“We would appreciate more compute power in Europe, and that’s something we have to tackle as well,” Busch said, per the report.

Schneider Electric CEO Olivier Blum, whose company will participate in the U.S. AI infrastructure initiative as part of Nvidia’s supply chain, told CNBC that governments should cooperate on AI because companies are increasingly global.

“So, government also has to understand that if they want to have their own domestic companies to be successful outside their home country, they need to find some common agreement,” Blum said, according to the report.

It was reported Wednesday (Jan. 22) that IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said during a panel at the World Economic Forum that regulations should be a “light touch” but the EU Artificial Intelligence Act is “a sledgehammer.”

Krishna added that there is a place for a heavy-handed approach: AI systems that pose extreme risk.

The European Union is set to publish a draft report focused on competitiveness, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

The Competitiveness Compass report, which will be released within a month, will propose establishing an agency that will invest in strategic technologies, building infrastructure for AI, cutting regulation, improving access to funding, lowering energy costs and boosting access to critical materials, the report said.

An earlier study found that the EU needs to invest 800 billion euros a year through 2030 to improve its competitiveness, a level of investment that the continent hasn’t seen since the 1970s, according to the report.

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