Europe’s ICT market is currently valued at €1.02trillion. However, a released whitepaper emphasizes that the continent’s long-term tech competitiveness relies heavily on scaling AI computing power, establishing cloud infrastructure, embedding open-source standards, and mobilising deeper pools of startup capital.
Authored by GITEX AI EUROPE in partnership with research firm LUE, the whitepaper argues these priorities form a “new industrial compact”. Together, these pillars aim to align Europe’s innovation capacity with its broader economic and energy growth.
Compute capacity and energy integration
While Europe’s data centre capacity is projected to grow by 70 per cent by 2030, demand stemming from AI applications is expected to rise even faster. To keep pace, the region must expand its compute and energy infrastructure in tandem to ensure resilience and sustainability.
Key infrastructure insights from the study include:
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Germany alone may need to triple its data centre capacity by the end of the decade.
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This expansion in Germany will require up to €60billion in new investment to meet projected industrial and AI workloads.
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The EU’s €200billion InvestAI programme is already anchoring this effort by funding five AI gigafactories across Europe.
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These facilities will be equipped with 100,000 or more specialised GPUs, with access open to large industrial companies, startups, and research institutes.
Sovereign cloud and open-source foundations
The second frontier identified by the report is cloud autonomy. Currently, about 40 per cent of European enterprises have at least 40 per cent of their applications hosted in the cloud, a figure that is expected to soar to 91 per cent by 2028. Despite this rapid adoption, non-European hyperscalers currently control roughly 70 per cent of the continent’s cloud market.
The paper calls for a shift toward “sovereign-first” cloud architectures that guarantee legal, operational, and data control strictly within European jurisdictions.
Open-source technology is highlighted as a pivotal force in reinforcing this sovereignty. Open standards, such as the Sovereign Cloud Stack (SCS) funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, enable companies to migrate freely across platforms and foster a culture of shared innovation without relying on proprietary vendors.
Backing deep-tech builders
According to the Bertelsmann Foundation, despite Europe’s rich engineering talent, only around 5 per cent of global venture capital flows into the EU tech ecosystem.
To close this critical funding gap, the whitepaper calls for a new ecosystem of growth-stage financing powered by public-private co-investment and strategic industrial funds. Current initiatives building this financial scaffolding include:
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Germany’s €1billion KfW DeepTech Future Fund, which backs high-growth innovators.
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The Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on Next-Generation Cloud and Services, which channels €3billion into EU-based data and semiconductor projects.
Rallying global tech partnerships
The findings set the stage for GITEX AI EUROPE 2026, which is scheduled to run from 30 June to 1 July 2026 at Messe Berlin.
The event serves as a massive nexus connecting AI, deep tech, quantum, cyber, and cloud innovators. Following a successful inaugural edition that united 1,400 enterprises and startups from over 100 countries, the 2026 event will reinforce its role as a defining platform for the continent’s intelligent economy and collaborative technological leadership.
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