On February 2, Deutsche Telekom launched Germany’s first “AI Factory” for industry in Munich, an advanced computational hub designed to transition the nation’s manufacturing core into an autonomous AI era, in the latest move toward Europe’s sovereign AI infrastructure.
The facility’s debut, announced alongside the new Industrial AI Cloud, coincides with a joint initiative by Germany, France, and Italy to take the European Union (EU) toward the mandatory stockpiling of key minerals. Europe is counting on its defensive economic maneuver to securing the raw materials needed to power the continent’s next generation of AI and green energy infrastructure.
Deutsche Telekom today stated its Industrial AI Cloud in Munich, marking a major step in Europe’s push for sovereign AI infrastructure as the company teams up with NVIDIA and SAP to deliver massive computing power for industry, research and government.
Built in just six months, the new AI factory at Munich’s Tucherpark will give Germany its place at the table as a growing hub that will scale Europe’s AI industry. Backed by nearly 10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, the facility already runs at more than one-third of its capacity, serving companies, startups, and research institutions across Europe.
Sovereign AI Infrastructure Factory Takes Shape in Munich
The dual developments fortress-style shift of industrial policy in Europe, with leaders seeking to insulate the bloc’s digital future from global supply chain volatility and geopolitical dependencies.
The Munich-based AI Factory delivers on the promise of delivering sovereign processing power required for advanced industrial automation. The trilateral push for minerals stockpiling, however, highlights a different type of vulnerability, a foundational one. The reliance on foreign adversaries for the lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements that fuel high-tech manufacturing.
By synchronizing the expansion of domestic “intelligence factories” with a centralized mineral reserve, the EU’s three largest economies are attempting to build a self-contained industrial ecosystem capable of competing with the vertical integration models of the United States and China.
Deutsche Telekom says the sovereign development of Industrial AI Cloud provides the sovereign AI infrastructure secure, high-performance AI computing entirely on German soil, designed to meet strict requirements for data protection, availability, and sustainability.
“Many can talk. Deutsche Telekom acts,” said CEO Tim Höttges. “We are investing in AI, in Germany as a business location and in Europe… We are proving here that Europe can do AI.”
The sovereign AI infrastructure delivers up to 0.5 ExaFLOPS of computing power, the company says, to allow all 450 million EU citizens to use an AI assistant simultaneously. Early customers include robotics firm Agile Robots and simulation specialist PhysicsX, while research institutions are tapping the system for large-scale projects.
The launch drew strong political backing. German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil called the initiative “an important stake for the German and European AI ecosystem,” adding that “technological leadership must be at the core of Germany’s future business model.”
Toward Europe’s Digital Independence
The AI factory underpins the so-called “Deutschland stack,” developed with SAP, combining Deutsche Telekom’s infrastructure and cloud platform with SAP’s business and AI software. The goal is to offer a full, sovereign technology stack for public institutions, industry, and SMEs.
Industrial heavyweights are already lining up. Siemens is integrating its simulation portfolio into the platform, enabling faster digital twins and AI-driven product development.
“This is not a promise for the future,” said Cedrik Neike, CEO of Digital Industries at Siemens. “In Munich… it is already a reality.”
Sustainability is also central to the sovereign AI infrastructure. The data center runs entirely on renewable energy, uses water from the nearby Eisbach for cooling, and will eventually feed waste heat back into the surrounding district.
Beyond commercial use, the platform hosts the Sovereign Open-Source Foundation Models (SOOFI) project, aimed at sovereign development, of an open-source European language model with around 100 billion parameters.
“The opening of Deutsche Telekom’s AI factory is good news for Germany and Europe,” said DFKI CEO Antonio Krüger, noting that it strengthens Europe’s technological sovereignty.
As Europe races to reduce dependence on foreign AI infrastructure, Deutsche Telekom’s Industrial AI Cloud signals a clear ambition, to move AI from experimentation into production on Europe’s own terms.
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