EU unveils its plan for global leadership in AI race: the AI Continent Action Plan

10 Apr 2025 01:59 PM

On 9 April 2025, the EU Commission unveiled its AI Continent Action Plan outlining a set of “bold actions” to become a “global leader in Artificial Intelligence, a leading AI continent”.  

Overview 

The plan identifies 5 key areas of focus in order to achieve its objective of making the EU the “leading AI continent”:  

1. Computing infrastructure: There is a need to strengthen the EU’s network of AI Factories and establish Gigafactories.  
2. Access to high-quality data: This will be addressed by the EU’s upcoming Data Union strategy and will explore setting up “data labs” as part of AI Factories.  
3. Further development of AI algorithms and leveraging their adoption in EU strategic sectors: Concrete actions will be outlined in the upcoming Apply AI Strategy.   
4. Strong AI talent base: There is a need to enhance AI education and research, raise public awareness, and facilitate skilled migration.  
5. Minimise compliance burden of AI Act: The plan aims to prevent market fragmentation and ensure compliance burdens are minimised especially for smaller innovators.  

The content of each area is further explored below.  

1. Infrastructure  

Similarly to the UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan which recognises the need for world class compute infrastructure (which it aims to achieve through long term plans and “AI growth zones”), the EU intends to advance its own AI capabilities through its AI Factories initiative. The initiative which was launched as part of the 2024 AI innovation package.   

Deploy and scale AI Factories 

The EU intends to:

• Set up thirteen AI Factories across 17 EU Member States and two selected EuroHPC Participating States (Norway and Turkey), backed by a €2 billion investment, with additional supercomputers to be procured or upgraded by 2026. 
• Use these factories to offer access to cutting-edge infrastructure and link with national and EU-wide data sources, as well as other initiatives like Digital Innovation Hubs. 
• Also providing remote access via AI Factory Antennas which will extend services to countries without dedicated infrastructure. All Factories and Antennas are expected to be fully operational by the end of 2025. 
• Create a new access policy, to be adopted in April 2025, will prioritise AI innovators and simplify access to EuroHPC resources, reinforcing Europe’s strategic position in global AI leadership. 

Invest in AI Gigafactories

• The EU is establishing AI Gigafactories, large-scale facilities with massive computing power to develop and train cutting-edge AI models, aiming for Artificial General Intelligence. These AI Gigafactories will aim to make Europe globally competitive, reduce its reliance on non-European AI processors, and strengthen its strategic autonomy in critical sectors. 
• Investment estimated at €20 billion through the InvestAI Facility, will seek to support the creation of up to 5 AI Gigafactories via public-private partnerships. 
• The initiative involves a call for interest followed by an official call for the establishment of AI Gigafactories by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking.
• The EU also aims to facilitate the scale-up of AI companies and exploring how EU public procurement can create a substantial market for innovative AI products and services.

Establish the support framework for boosting EU cloud and data centre capacity

• The EU highlights dependence on non-EU infrastructure as a concern, specifically pointing to cloud infrastructure. The plan calls on relying on highly secure EU-based cloud capacity for highly critical use cases, including AI applications.  
• The EU Cloud and Development Act aims to at least triple the EU’s data centre capacity within the next 5-7 years and allow it to meet the needs of EU businesses and public administrations by 2035.  
• The Act will also explore establishing a common marketplace for cloud capacity and services. 

2. Data for AI  

Similarly to the UK plan which seeks to unlock access to data through the creation of a National Data Library and curating strategic data sets in key areas of national strength, the EU plans on:  

• Setting up data labs, as part of the AI factories initiative, to connect a wealth of sector specific data (available through Europe’s Common Data Spaces) with the specific needs of AI developers. They will also be supplemented with a range of services such as cleaning and enriching data sets, and providing tools to standardise formats of synthetic data.  
• the Commission will also promote the development of a shared cloud software to make it easier to manage and connect data spaces. 

The EU aims to achieve its Data for AI objectives through the upcoming Data Union Strategy (for which a public consultation will be launched in Q2 2025). Particular attention will be given to streamlining existing data legislation to reduce complexity and administrative burden. 

3. Foster innovation and accelerating AI adoption in strategic EU sectors  

Once again similar approaches can be seen between the EU and the UK’s plans, with both emphasising the need to embrace adoption in areas of respective leadership and the importance of SME transformation:  

• the EU will focus on facilitating AI adoption (through access to data and talent) in key European industrial sectors (where it has strong leadership), such as advanced manufacturing, aerospace and defence, agriculture, energy and climate, robotics, telecom, mobility etc.  
• A network of European Digital Innovation Hubs will be set up throughout the EU and ten other European Countries to ensure the successful digital transformation of SMEs, mid-caps, and public sector organisations.  
• The EU will aim to ensure a continuous process that spans from research to market through a variety of initiatives and packages such as the GenAI4EU initiative which supports applied research.  
• Other projects will have more specific aims such as accelerating deployment of European generative AI solutions in public administrations.  

The EU plans of further detailing these areas in its upcoming Apply AI Strategy (for which a public consultation was launched on 9 April) 

4. Strengthen AI skills and talent  

Both the EU and the UK recognise the importance of building a strong AI talent base.   

The EU plan will focus on:  

• facilitating legal migration pathways for highly skilled third-country nationals, including researchers; 
•  incentivising the return of European AI talent to the EU and; 
• educating and training the next generation of AI experts based in the EU. 

This will be enabled through the following steps:  

• It will seek to do so through the future “EU Talent Pool” as well as setting up Multiple Purpose Legal Gateway Offices in key partners countries.   
• Top PhD students and researchers from third countries will see their arrival facilitated through the Students and Researchers Directive and the BlueCard Directive via the Visa Strategy, as well as through piloting the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action ‘MSCA Choose Europe’.  
• Educational programmes offered via the AI Skills Academy alongside other initiatives (such as apprenticeship programmes or joint European Bachelors, Masters, and PhDs) will seek to prepare the next generation of AI experts.  
• the Commission will promote access to AI literacy and foster dialogue on AI for all, notably by keeping a living repository of AI literacy and promoting further dissemination activities. 

5. Regulatory Simplification  

The EU plan’s final area of focus continues the EU’s overall direction of simplification as highlighted in its Competitiveness Compass and its overall 2025 Work Programme:  

• The Commission calls for a smooth streamlined implementation of the EU AI Act. This should be enabled through the upcoming AI Act Service Desk which will serve as an interactive platform to provide businesses with implementation guidance.  
• the Commission will continue to work with the AI Board of EU Member States, which assists in providing guidance on the application of the AI Act in particular within the context of sectoral legislation. 
• The Commission will seek to identify measures that need to be facilitated for a smooth implementation of the AI Act. The Apply AI Strategy consultation (which will have a specific section on questions related to the AI Act, will help the Commission determine the best course of action).  

Next steps 

As highlighted previously, the EU’s plans will be enabled through different strategies, initiatives, and pieces of legislation. The EU has now opened  

• A public consultation inviting all interested parties to share their views on the Cloud and AI Development Act. 
• A public consultation on Apply AI to identify stakeholder priorities, challenges to the uptake of AI, and the relevance of proposed solutions and policy approaches—including additional measures to ensure the smooth and simple application of the AI Act. 

A third public consultation on Data Union Strategy will be launched in May. 

The timeline for many key EU Commission Actions are outlined in more detail in the Plan itself.  

techUK will further analyse the opportunities for cooperation presented by both AI plans and will seek to take part in relevant consultation procedures.