The European Commission has presented the AI Continent Action Plan, a new strategy designed to strengthen the European Union’s capacity for AI development and deployment. The plan outlines coordinated investment in infrastructure, access to high-quality data, AI adoption in strategic sectors, and support for regulatory implementation.
The plan includes establishing a strong computing infrastructure by creating at least 13 AI factories as regional hubs to support startups, research institutions, and industry players. Additionally, up to five AI gigafactories will be developed to provide extensive computing power for training large foundation models in Europe. These initiatives will be financially supported by the public and private sectors through the InvestAI facility, aiming to mobilize €20 billion.
The Commission is also preparing a Cloud and AI Development Act, to triple the EU’s data center capacity within five to seven years. Sustainability is noted as a priority, with references to energy and water use efficiency, although details remain limited.
Access to high-quality data is addressed through a forthcoming Data Union Strategy, which aims to establish a single market for data across the EU. The AI factories will also host data labs tasked with curating and organizing datasets from diverse sources to support AI model development.
Despite the scale of the plan, several experts in the AI ecosystem have expressed concerns about the gap between ambition and current capability. Pierre-Carl Langlais, co-founder of Pleias, one of the few independent LLM labs in Europe, noted:
This is welcome on paper, but still have to see how it’s fleshed out in practice. There is nearly no one actually training models. I run one of the very few independent LLM labs in Europe, and I have the feeling of being surrounded by generals and regulators with no soldiers.
In addition to infrastructure, the plan sets out measures to improve AI adoption. A new Apply AI Strategy will target public sector institutions and industries such as healthcare, aiming to raise adoption from the current rate of 13.5% among EU companies. The strategy will be implemented through the AI factories and European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs).
The action plan also includes efforts to increase the region’s AI talent pool. These include facilitating international recruitment for AI professionals, expanding education and training programs in generative AI, and launching upskilling initiatives across key sectors.
Some experts have raised concerns about the plan’s overall governance and environmental footprint. Alek Tarkowski, a director of strategy at the Open Future Foundation, emphasized the need for coordination:
Who will orchestrate this complex plan? We need an agency with the capacity to coordinate AI deployment across sectors while ensuring compliance with digital rights. Definitely more than just an ‘observatory’ proposed in the Action Plan.
While the Action Plan signals a shift from regulatory focus to building capacity, questions remain about the EU’s ability to scale model training and foundational AI development domestically.
