EU Commission Publishes AI Continent Action Plan and Seeks Input

On April 9, 2025 the European Commission adopted a communication on the so-called AI Continent Action Plan – its strategy to shape the next phase of AI development in Europe, with consultation to follow. The Commission’s declared objective is to transform the EU into a global leader in AI by fostering innovation, ensuring trustworthy AI, and enhancing competitiveness while safeguarding democratic values and cultural diversity. Keep monitoring Data Matters for more on the Commission’s consultation, when available.

The Action Plan foresees in particular:

• Significant investments in AI Factories, Gigafactories and Cloud capacity. In particular:
  • The EU will invest €10 billion over the 2021-2027 period to establish and enhance AI Factories. This includes the procurement and deployment of nine new AI-optimized supercomputers and the upgrading of an existing one in the context of the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) and two associated EuroHPC Participating States. The Annex to the Action Plan lists the 13 AI Factories that have already been selected across 17 Member States and that will be fully operational, networked together, and connected to other major AI support initiatives by the end of 2025.
  • The EU also plans to mobilize €20 billion for AI infrastructure, targeting up to five AI Gigafactories across the EU, i.e. large-scale facilities to develop and train complex AI models at an unprecedented scale, integrating massive computing power exceeding 100,000 advanced AI processors. This will be facilitated through public-private partnerships and innovative funding mechanisms.
  • In Q4 2025/Q1 2026, the Commission will propose a Cloud and AI Development Act – with the public consultation recently opened. The Act is intended to create conditions to incentivize large investments in cloud and edge capacity, aiming to triple the EU’s data centre capacity within the next five to seven years. The Act will address obstacles such as lengthy permitting processes and access to sufficient energy, ensuring that data centre projects meeting resource efficiency requirements benefit from simplified permitting and public support measures. This action is considered by European policymakers to be essential to reduce the dependence on non-EU infrastructure and ensure competitiveness and sovereignty within the EU.
• Implementation of a Data Union Strategy to improve access to high-quality data for AI innovators whilst ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and security. In particular:
  • Through the establishment of Data Labs, the Commission has the objective to strengthen the EU’s data ecosystem by enhancing interoperability and data availability across sectors; address the scarcity of robust and high-quality data for training and validating AI models, and better align data policies with the needs of businesses, the public sector, and society, while fostering a trustworthy environment for data sharing.
  • The Data Labs will be integral parts of the AI Factories initiative, federating data from different AI Factories covering the same sectors and linking it to Common European Data Spaces (such as, the European Health Data Space). They are also supposed to help companies share data, turning fragmented data sources into a trusted and accessible resource for AI development.
  • The Commission aims at launching a public consultation to gather input from businesses, the public sector, researchers, and other stakeholders in Q2/2025 and to set up Data Labs within the AI Factories by the end of 2025.
• AI Adoption: Launch of the “Apply AI Strategy” to accelerate AI adoption in strategic sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, and public administration, supported by European Digital Innovation Hubs.
• Talent Development: Strengthening AI literacy, skills, and talent through education, training, and attracting / retaining global AI experts, including the launch of an AI Skills Academy.
• Regulatory Framework: Ensuring compliance with the AI Act, providing support through the AI Act Service Desk, and facilitating regulatory sandboxes for high-risk AI systems.

Last but not least, the Commission aims at promoting global cooperation on AI governance and innovation, enhancing the EU’s influence in international AI standards that are being developed by the EU standardisation bodies, CEN and CENELEC.

This post is as of the posting date stated above. Sidley Austin LLP assumes no duty to update this post or post about any subsequent developments having a bearing on this post.