Can Europe keep its industrial champions in the AI era?

Today, social media is buzzing with German Siemens CEO Roland Busch stating to Bloomberg that he thinks investing in China and the US is more logical, given the regulatory burden the company is experiencing in the EU:

“It’s nonsense to treat industrial and machine data the same way as personal data” <...> “I can’t explain to my shareholders why I’m investing money in an environment where I’m being held back.”

This statement can be interpreted not only in light of the European artificial intelligence regulatory framework, but also the data framework, which is still a major roadblock for both small and large companies within Europe.

The "Trump Effect": Europe’s task to retain its own industry

The threat of losing European industrial champions, at least partially, is very real: the American mix of deregulation, lowered taxes for domestic manufacturers through the legendary "One big beautiful bill", and a never-ending threat of new tariffs and related uncertainty is making European industrial players diversify their investments to keep the American consumer base within reach.

US President Donald Trump stated at the 2025 World Economic Forum that “there will be no better place on Earth to create jobs, build factories, or grow a company than right here in the good old USA.”

The US is keeping track of all global companies which are planning to invest in the US, and the “Trump effect” list already includes 15 EU companies. Whether these investments are new or have already been pre-planned and are only used as political PR is uncertain, but, looking at the lists, the Siemens Healthineers group will invest $150 million “to expand production, including relocating manufacturing operations for its Varian company from Mexico to California,” Siemens will invest $285 million “in U.S. manufacturing and AI data centers, which will create more than 900 new skilled manufacturing jobs,” and Siemens Energy will invest $1 billion “to scale up U.S.-based production of grid and gas turbine equipment and expand its apprenticeship and training programs.”

German perspective on industry and data 

German companies Siemens and SAP have talked extensively before about the need to revise AI and data rules for Europe’s big industry, which has resonated with the German government. At least declaratively, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz supported the idea of simplification for many things, with a special focus on AI rules for industry, at the Hannover Messe recently.

While not in the spotlight for now, the debates on the upcoming Data Act - which, as a result of the European Data Union Strategy, will try to merge the Open Data Directive and the Data Governance Act, and repeal the Free Flow of Non-Personal Data Regulation - will also be interesting to watch from a consumer and smaller-company perspective. 

Judging by the first Council position leaks, the European industry is lobbying hard to argue that some obligations for industry players to share data in the Data Act are excessive and, thus, threatening to their trade secrets. The reality is that big industry players are hesitant to share or sell their data to smaller, data-oriented companies, even if they don't have plans to operationalize the data themselves. This has also been reflected in the Data Union Strategy’s communication: “Individual manufacturers are hesitant to share this data due to trade secrets, privacy, and competition concerns.

Overall, finding a balance between meeting industry requests and facilitating a broader European data economy will be difficult for the EU. This challenge is compounded by politicians and lobby groups who oppose simplification, often dismissing such efforts as "US lobbying" while ignoring the actual statements made by European industry players.

The political friction behind AI Gigafactories: sovereignty vs speed

One of the cornerstones of the EU’s AI Continent Action Plan is the development of 5 European AI Gigafactories - large-scale facilities with massive computing power and data centers designed to support the European industry’s AI development and application needs. 

The catch is that each Gigafactory will require at least 100,000 chips, most of which currently come from the US. Although the EU is working hard to develop its own chip industry, the sector needs these AI-optimized chips here and now. The EU’s fast reaction to the Biden AI Diffusion Plan in early 2025, where the Commission officials asked the US to rethink their approach, further illustrates that the bloc does not yet have the capacity to produce these chips domestically.

The EU initiated the European Chips Act in 2022 with an ambitious goal: doubling Europe's global semiconductor market share to 20% by 2030. The Chips IPCEIs (Important Projects of Common European Interest) began rolling out in 2023,and global demand - projected to grow by roughly 25% - is pulling the European industry upwards, with an estimated  double-digit growth in 2026. However, with the rise of AI and the urgent need for AI-optimised chips, the EU is now initiating Chips Act 2.0, which is intended to tackle the gap between global AI-chip leaders and European capacity. Industry dialogues are estimating a need for at least 30-60 billion in EU funding, supplemented by 50-60 billion from Member States, resulting in a total including private investment of 200-300 billion euros.

Back to the AI Gigafactories - in early 2026, a group of countries ranging from France to Poland asked the Commission to provide more details about the conditions and rules before the call for AI Gigafactories was launched. Euractiv commented that France is unhappy about the potential for AI Gigafactories and European taxpayer money ending up in the mass-purchasing of American chips without sufficiently exploring European opportunities, while German ministries are becoming less and less vocal about it, claiming it may clash with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. 

The unsaid part is how to facilitate the growth of the local chip industry (a long-term solution) while meeting immediate needs (a short-term solution). For countries with globally competitive industries that are being seduced (sometimes - strongarmed) by other jurisdictions to relocate every day, the potential of exploring European alternatives may only lengthen the process and dilute the already modest investment (€20 billion) for AI Gigafactories.

Moreover, while building on the existing successful European chip industry through the Chips Act 2.0 and additional investments is a logical and strategic move on the part of the EU, the implementation and funding processes are likely to become entangled in the typical web of bureaucracy and diverging interests. This will likely result in a slow process that won’t match American or Asian speed.