Nvidia just made its biggest European bet yet, signing a €1 billion partnership with Deutsche Telekom to build what they're calling an "AI factory" in Munich. The Industrial AI Cloud promises to boost Germany's AI computing power by 50% while keeping German data on German soil - a move that signals how seriously tech giants are taking Europe's digital sovereignty push.
Nvidia is doubling down on Europe with its war chest wide open. The chip giant just announced a €1 billion partnership with Deutsche Telekom to build what they're calling an "Industrial AI Cloud" in Munich - and it's not just another data center.
The facility will pack more than 1,000 Nvidia DGX B200 systems and RTX Pro Servers loaded with up to 10,000 Blackwell GPUs. That's enough firepower to boost Germany's entire AI computing capacity by 50%, according to the companies. But here's the kicker - everything stays in Germany, complying with the country's strict data sovereignty laws.
"Mechanical engineering and industry have made this country strong," Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges said in the announcement. "But here, too, we are challenged. AI is a huge opportunity. It will help to improve our products and strengthen our European strengths."
The timing couldn't be more strategic. European tech leaders have been calling on EU lawmakers to reduce reliance on foreign infrastructure while fostering homegrown alternatives. Meanwhile, tech companies have been criticizing the bloc's AI regulations, arguing they stifle innovation.
Nvidia's Munich bet comes as the EU committed €200 billion earlier this year for "AI gigafactories" across the continent. But that funding pales compared to the hundreds of billions that Microsoft, Google, and Oracle are pumping into US AI infrastructure.
Early partners are already lining up. Perplexity will use the facility to provide "in-country" AI inferencing to German users and companies - addressing privacy concerns that have plagued US-based AI services in Europe. Agile Robots will deploy its bots to actually install server racks at the facility, showcasing the kind of industrial automation the cloud will enable.
