The European Union bloc of countries wants to take a step forward in terms of the artificial intelligence segment. The strong regulatory environment has hindered development in the area, causing it to lag significantly behind its US or China counterparts. However, the EU wants to change this with a €200 billion investment in AI.
The InvestAI initiative to fund AI development in EU countries with €200 billion
The EU funding will fall under the so-called “InvestAI initiative.” Its main goal is to build “gigafactories” to produce and train complex AI models. The project has a similar idea to Stargate, the North American initiative. In fact, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a €109 billion investment for AI development in the country, comparing the project directly to Stargate. However, the North American initiative is much more ambitious than the French one.
Ursula von der Leyen, EU Commission President, revealed the InvestAI initiative during the AI Action Summit in Paris this week. The EU has added another €50 billion to the €150 billion previously pledged by the European AI Champions Initiative (a group of private investors), bringing the total AI funding to €200 billion (about $206 billion).
“We want Europe to be one of the leading AI continents, and this means embracing a way of life where AI is everywhere,” Von der Leyen stated. “Too often I hear that Europe is late to the race where the United States or China have already gotten ahead. I disagree, because the AI race is far from being over,” she added.
The strong regulatory environment regarding data use remains present
It’s noteworthy that the main problem for AI in EU countries is not investment. The severe data regulations in the bloc’s countries delay the development of such tools. Services like Apple Intelligence are not even available in the EU yet because of it. The use and collection of massive datasets is a fundamental part of the development of AI-powered services. EU regulations seem to directly conflict with an initiative to work on artificial intelligence projects in the region.
The US and China already have multiple AI-powered flagship services available. Think of platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, and others, in addition to image, voice, and video generators. However, the EU has not been able to catch up yet. US Vice President JD Vance this week called the EU regulatory environment “authoritarian censorship.” He said that “excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry.”
That said, the EU seems to continue to see its model as the “correct” one and does not seem likely to change it. “AI will improve our healthcare, spur our research and innovation and boost our competitiveness. We want AI to be a force for good and for growth,” said Von der Leyen. “We are doing this through our own European approach—based on openness, cooperation, and excellent talent.”
