As Europe positions itself in the global artificial intelligence race, the European Commission has launched an ambitious roadmap to catapult the EU to the forefront of AI innovation and adoption. On April 9, 2025, the Commission unveiled its AI Continent Action Plan, setting forth a comprehensive strategy to transform Europe into „a global leader in Artificial Intelligence, a leading AI continent”. [1] This landmark communication follows President von der Leyen’s vision articulated at the AI Action Summit in Paris in February 2025, where she announced the InvestAI initiative to mobilize €200 billion for AI investment across the Union.[2]
The Strategic Vision and Policy Context
The AI Continent Action Plan acknowledges that while the global race for AI leadership is far from over, Europe possesses distinct advantages it can leverage: a large single market with unified safety rules, high-quality research and skilled professionals, a thriving startup ecosystem, and solid computational infrastructure. The Plan outlines how Europe can maintain its distinctive approach to AI by capitalizing on these strengths while ensuring alignment with European values and democratic principles.
This ambitious vision builds upon several years of EU policy development in the digital realm. Most notably, the AI Continent Action Plan operates within the framework established by the EU AI Act[3], which entered into force on August 1, 2024, as the world’s first comprehensive regulation on artificial intelligence. The AI Act created the foundation for a regulatory approach that balances innovation with risk management through a targeted, risk-based framework.
Additionally, the Plan complements the Digital Europe Programme (2021-2027)[4], which allocated substantial funding (approximately €1.66 billion) specifically for artificial intelligence initiatives. It also builds upon the European Chips Act[5] of 2023, which established a framework for strengthening Europe’s semiconductor ecosystem – a critical component for AI hardware infrastructure.
Building Europe’s AI Infrastructure: From Factories to Gigafactories
At the heart of the Action Plan lies an unprecedented investment in computing infrastructure. The Commission is scaling up the EU’s public AI infrastructure to enable researchers and innovators to train and finetune AI frontier models. The Plan details the progress of the AI Factories[6] initiative, announced in the 2024 AI Innovation Package, which has already selected 13 AI Factories across 17 Member States and two associated EuroHPC Participating States.
These AI Factories integrate AI-optimized supercomputers, large data resources, programming facilities, and human capital to create cutting-edge AI models and applications. According to the Action Plan, nine new AI-optimized supercomputers will be procured and deployed across the EU in 2025/26, more than tripling the current EuroHPC AI computing capacity.
However, perhaps the most ambitious element of the infrastructure strategy is the establishment of AI Gigafactories – massive facilities capable of developing and training complex AI models with hundreds of trillions of parameters. These will integrate computing power exceeding 100,000 advanced AI processors, significantly surpassing the capacity of current AI Factories. As announced by Commission President von der Leyen, the InvestAI initiative will mobilize €20 billion specifically for developing up to five AI Gigafactories across the Union.
The Action Plan also addresses broader infrastructure needs through a proposed Cloud and AI Development Act[7], which aims to at least triple the EU’s data center capacity within the next five to seven years. This initiative acknowledges the EU’s current reliance on non-EU cloud infrastructure and seeks to mitigate associated economic security risks.
Data: Fueling Europe’s AI Ambitions
Access to high-quality data is recognized as a fundamental prerequisite for AI development. The Action Plan announces a new Data Union Strategy to be unveiled in the second half of 2025, which will focus on strengthening the EU’s data ecosystem by enhancing interoperability and data availability across sectors.
A key innovation in this area will be the establishment of Data Labs as integral components of the AI Factories. These Data Labs will federate data from different AI Factories covering the same sectors and link to Common European Data Spaces, making high-quality data available to AI developers under appropriate conditions. The Commission is supporting these efforts by developing Simpl, a shared cloud software to facilitate the management and connection of data spaces.
The Plan highlights existing initiatives in specific domains, such as the Alliance for Language Technologies (ALT-EDIC) for language data and the European Health Data Space for healthcare data. These sector-specific initiatives demonstrate how pooling data across Member States can deliver tangible results for AI development while preserving European values such as privacy and cultural diversity.
Accelerating AI Adoption Across the EU Economy
While the European AI startup scene is described as „booming” with more than 6,800 AI startups, the Action Plan acknowledges that AI adoption remains low, with only 13.5% of EU companies having adopted AI as of 2024. To address this gap, the Plan introduces the forthcoming Apply AI Strategy, which will focus on accelerating AI adoption across strategic sectors where EU expertise could increase productivity and competitiveness.
The strategy targets key European industrial sectors including advanced manufacturing, aerospace, security and defense, energy, mobility, healthcare, and creative industries, as well as the public sector. The European Digital Innovation Hubs will play a pivotal role in this strategy, becoming „Experience Centres for AI” in their second phase starting December 2025.
These hubs will work in synergy with the AI Factories ecosystem to facilitate companies’ access to computing resources and other AI initiatives. The Plan provides several concrete examples of how European Digital Innovation Hubs have already assisted SMEs in implementing AI solutions, from robotic vessels in Estonia to machine vision for textile production in Spain.
Strengthening Europe’s AI Skills and Talent Base
The Action Plan recognizes that Europe’s competitive strength lies in its people, and addressing talent shortages is crucial for AI leadership. It outlines measures to enlarge the EU’s pool of AI specialists and to upskill and reskill workers and citizens in AI use, building upon the Union of Skills[8] announced in previous policies.
A flagship initiative in this area is the AI Skills Academy, which will serve as a one-stop shop for education and training on AI-related skills. The Academy will support AI fellowship schemes, pilot AI apprenticeship programs, and develop specialized degree programs focused on generative AI. The Action Plan also addresses the need to attract and retain skilled AI talent from non-EU countries, including through the ‘MSCA Choose Europe’ scheme for researchers and the future EU Talent Pool.
Facilitating Regulatory Compliance and Simplification
The EU’s AI Act creates the foundation for a well-functioning single market for AI by ensuring free circulation across borders while requiring that AI developed and used in Europe is safe, respects fundamental rights, and maintains high quality standards. Recognizing that the success of this framework depends on its practical workability, the Action Plan introduces several measures to facilitate compliance.
Chief among these is the AI Act Service Desk, a central information hub that will provide practical advice to help businesses understand and comply with the AI Act. This initiative, to be launched in July 2025, will particularly serve the needs of smaller AI solution providers and deployers. The Commission will also provide templates, guidance, webinars, and training courses to streamline procedures and facilitate compliance.
Conclusion: A Coordinated Path Forward
The AI Continent Action Plan represents an ambitious and coordinated approach to positioning Europe at the forefront of AI innovation. By investing in key areas like computing infrastructure, data access, adoption in strategic sectors, skills development, and regulatory simplification, the EU aims to enhance its technological sovereignty while ensuring AI development aligns with European values.
As stated in the Action Plan’s conclusion, „This is a unique opportunity for Europe to act swiftly to shape the future of AI and create a better tomorrow for all Europeans, ultimately becoming a leading AI Continent”. The success of this vision will depend on close collaboration between EU institutions, governments, companies, researchers, and developers, as well as effective international engagement with like-minded partners.
The coming months will be critical as the Commission launches public consultations on key components of the Plan, including the Apply AI Strategy and the Cloud and AI Development Act. For businesses and other stakeholders seeking to navigate the evolving European AI landscape, these consultations represent important opportunities to shape the policies that will define Europe’s AI future.
[1] https://commission.europa.eu/topics/eu-competitiveness/ai-continent_en
[2] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_467
[3] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj/eng
[4] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/activities/digital-programme
[5] https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/european-chips-act_en
[6] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/ai-factories
[7] https://www.eu-cloud-ai-act.com/
[8] https://commission.europa.eu/topics/eu-competitiveness/union-skills_en
