Lagarde Warns Europe Lags in AI as Data Centre Gap Needs EUR 600 Billion

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said in a speech in Vienna on 14 September 2026 that the United States released 59 representative AI models in 2025, China released 35, and France and Britain released one each. The United States currently holds about 75% of global AI computing power, while Europe accounts for only 5%.

Europe depends on external suppliers for AI models, computing power and infrastructure. When European companies use some AI models, they must feed business data into models governed by the laws of other countries. An EU statistical survey showed that nearly half of the companies that considered adopting AI but ultimately abandoned the idea cited data protection as the reason.

A study commissioned by the European Commission shows that Europe's data centre capacity gap is about 3 gigawatts relative to 2025, and about 20 gigawatts by 2036 under a baseline scenario. Based on the construction cost of high-density AI data centres, filling the gap would require up to EUR 600 billion between 2026 and 2036, including spending on chips.

The EU's AI Continent Action Plan proposes mobilising EUR 20 billion through the InvestAI programme, building up to five AI gigafactories, and tripling EU data centre capacity within five to seven years after 2026. The facilities would be used mainly to train and deploy complex models, with a planned scale four times that of existing AI factories.

The European Commission launched a formal tender in July 2026, with the first projects scheduled to begin construction in 2027. An earlier call for expressions of interest received 77 proposals from 60 locations in 16 member states. Euro area companies plan to devote about 10% of their investment to AI in 2026. As of 2026, the share of employees using AI in their work had doubled within two years to more than 50%.