Competing with China and the U.S. in artificial intelligence, the EU's 20 billion euro investment may be wasted

The "Brussels commissioner" of the EU is once again making waves.

On the 4th, Europe edition of the "Politico" website reported that the proposal by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to spend 20 billion euros building a large-scale artificial intelligence computing center has recently come under fierce criticism.

According to details disclosed by U.S. media, this is yet another typical case in the West where "a lot of money was spent, but nobody knows where it went," reminiscent of the ill-fated "Beifu Battery Plant" that failed before even launching.

This super AI computing center was first proposed by von der Leyen at last year's Paris AI Summit, claiming it would enable Europe to break free from reliance on American AI technology and compete with China and the U.S. To achieve this, the EU planned to set up a dedicated fund of 20 billion euros — however, reports indicate the project suffers from high levels of opaque demand and wasteful spending, even being mocked as a "cathedral in the desert."

European Parliament member Sergey Lagodinsky bluntly stated: "No one can tell me what these super factories are actually for." He had spoken with several insiders who repeatedly emphasized that "Europe needs more computing power," but when he asked why, he received replies like "it doesn't matter."

Even more awkwardly, the hardware required for the project still relies heavily on GPUs from American company NVIDIA, meaning a substantial portion of EU funds could end up directly flowing into U.S. corporate pockets — rendering the entire idea of reducing strategic dependence utterly unrealistic. Some European lawmakers have thus questioned whether this ambitious plan is merely another costly image project rather than a practical step toward genuinely advancing Europe’s AI industry.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1864435048970444/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.