Germany seeks doubling of AI data centres by 2030

BERLIN, March 17 (Reuters) - Germany plans to encourage investments in data centres to at least double domestic capacity and to boost artificial intelligence data processing at least fourfold by 2030, the government said on Tuesday.

In a bid to catch up with the dominant players the United States and China, digital minister Karsten Wildberger proposed a range of measures, including dedicating land for development, that ministers are due to approve on Wednesday.

• Under the scheme, municipal business taxes will go to the town or city that attracts the new centre, no longer to where the company is headquartered

• Regulatory reviews are to speed up and collaboration between the different companies in the AI supply chain will be encouraged

• "We welcome investment from third countries," according to a document published by the digital ministry. It is, however, primarily targeting European and German companies

• Amazon AMZN.O, MicrosoftMSFT.O, Google GOOGL.O are among the biggest spenders on German data infrastructure

• German players include Deutsche Telekom DTEGn.DE, unlisted Schwarz Group

• AI data centres in Germany boasted total capacity of 530 MW at the end of last year, much of that operated by non-German providers, according to figures from German lobby group Bitkom

• European countries are pushing for more sovereign control over AI infrastructure due to a rise in tariffs, armed conflicts and sharply diverging online-content regulation

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