NVIDIA has unveiled plans to transform Europe’s AI infrastructure through its Blackwell initiative, a continent-wide collaboration aimed at advancing digital sovereignty and economic growth. The project brings together governments and leading tech firms from countries including France, Italy, Spain and the UK to strengthen Europe's AI capabilities amid growing geopolitical pressure.
Partners include emerging AI developers like Mistral AI, cloud firms such as Domyn and Nebius, and telecom operators including Orange, Swisscom, Telefónica and Telenor. Their shared goal is to establish scalable, secure and sovereign AI infrastructure tailored for regional businesses.
Orange is expanding enterprise AI services via Cloud Avenue, built on NVIDIA’s high-performance systems. Italy’s Fastweb has launched MIIA, a generative AI model trained on NVIDIA chips. In Norway, Telenor is developing a renewable-powered data centre housing a multilingual AI translation tool. Telefónica is building a distributed AI network across Spain, using hundreds of NVIDIA GPUs to deliver low-latency, privacy-focused services.
These efforts are backed by a projected 3,000 exaflops of compute capacity, to be deployed through AI tech centres in Finland, Germany, Sweden, Italy and the UK. This computing power is critical to support modern AI applications and reflects a wider public-private drive to build a comprehensive European AI ecosystem.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has warned that the UK, while rich in AI research, lacks the necessary digital infrastructure. Responding to this, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer recently announced a £1 billion investment to boost the UK’s computing capacity twentyfold and scale AI adoption across sectors.
Europe’s ambitions are not without obstacles. Energy supply, skilled workforce shortages and regulatory complexity remain key concerns. McKinsey estimates that $300 billion in investment will be needed to scale Europe’s AI capabilities effectively.
As part of the Blackwell rollout, NVIDIA plans to open 200 AI data centres across Europe, including five major gigafactories equipped with next-generation GPUs. A standout collaboration with Mistral AI will deploy 18,000 Blackwell chips to new facilities, bolstering regional self-sufficiency.
The Netherlands is also moving to enhance its AI footprint, entering talks with NVIDIA and AMD to create a national AI supercomputer. Government-backed funding is being directed towards AI infrastructure to support broader EU digital ambitions.
This growing network of alliances marks a pivotal step in Europe's AI evolution. By combining investment, innovation and sovereign strategy, the Blackwell initiative could define the continent’s place in the global AI economy, positioning Europe not just as a participant, but as a leader in responsible and competitive AI development.
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