A consortium of German companies is looking to develop an AI data center using European funds.

Handelsblatt reports SAP, Deutsche Telekom, web hosting firm Ionos, and unlisted retailer Schwarz are negotiating a joint application with the European Union’s support to build a large data processing center for artificial intelligence.

The companies are reportedly attempting to secure funding under the EU’s gigafactories initiative, which aims to invest four or five large-scale AI data centers across Europe.

Announced in February, the European Commission hopes that each gigafactory would host around 100,000 of the latest-generation AI chips and be used to train the “most complex, very large, AI models.” Up to €20bn ($20.9bn) could be allocated to the collection of large clusters.

Details of what the four companies are planning have not been revealed. The companies are yet to comment on their plans.

Deutsche Telekom and T-Systems’ core data centers are located in Magdeburg and Biere, Germany, and the company has 16 total data centers with 130MW of capacity. In October 2024, Deutsche Telekom announced plans to expand its data center footprint with five additional locations. The company is also a Google Cloud customer.

SAP operates more than 90 data centers worldwide, according to its website, with five in Germany across Frankfurt (x2) and south of Mannheim in Walldorf and St. Leon Rot.

Ionos operates out of nine data centers across Europe and the US – including German sites in Berlin and Frankfurt operated by United Internet and Equinix, respectively.

Schwarz, which owns supermarket chain Lidl, launched its own cloud firm StackIT in 2022. StackIT lists three data centers on its website: DC01 in Neckarsulm, Germany; DC 08 in Ellhofen, Germany; and DC 10 in Ostermiething, Austria. A 200MW campus is planned in Lübbenau.