Google is opening an artificial intelligence centre in Berlin on Thursday, the latest sign of Europe's deepening reliance on American technology firms even as the continent struggles to close the gap with its rivals in the global AI race. Germany's ministry for digital affairs told AFP the centre will bring together cloud computing and data infrastructure, AI development operations, and a space for cooperation between start-ups and research centres.
The project is part of a 5.5 billion euro ($6.4 billion) investment drive into Germany announced by Google in November, which was originally planned to include a new data centre. The firm had said at the time it would renovate its Berlin office to add three floors equipped with meeting rooms, a new conference room and a demo space, but made no mention of an AI centre in the capital.
Europe is struggling to gain ground in the battle for AI dominance with the United States and China, both of which are pumping vast sums into the field and producing the most advanced models underpinning the technology. Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition has signalled it wants to make progress in the area as part of efforts to revive the struggling German economy, and there have been a flurry of AI-related announcements in recent weeks.
"I want technological leadership to once again become the core of our economic model," said Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil last month at the opening of an industrial AI hub spearheaded by German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom and US chip manufacturer Nvidia. But the challenges facing Germany are steep. Janis Hecker of the digital business association Bitkom warned that while efforts are being made to build up infrastructure and data storage capacities, the "challenges are enormous."
The government still "underestimates the importance of these technologies for value creation, but also for sovereignty and the defence of our values," he said. Bitkom notes that the United States builds more computing capacity each year than Germany has in total. According to its calculations, one-thousandth of the proposed central government budget for 2026 is dedicated to AI, and only a fraction of a massive infrastructure modernisation fund is earmarked for cutting-edge technologies.
Against this backdrop, Bitkom considers Google's investments in Germany a "big win." But such investments also add to concerns about Europe's technological dependencies on the United States at a time of strained transatlantic ties under President Donald Trump. Even when American tech giants are not the main players in a project, they often play a vital role in areas ranging from cloud infrastructure to advanced semiconductors.
At a summit on digital sovereignty in November, Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron backed the idea of favouring European firms in a bid to develop regional champions. Barbara Engels of the IW Institute welcomed Google's projects but cautioned that "we must use this infrastructure while developing our own capabilities," adding that "sovereignty does not mean self-sufficiency, but strategic capacity for action."
Antonio Krueger, head of the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence, argued that it makes no sense for Europe to try to overtake China and the United States in producing the most advanced AI models. Instead, Europe should leverage its advantages in industry, he said, with data collected by companies used to train smaller AI models to "solve very specific tasks." In this area, he added, "the race is still wide open."
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