Nvidia, Deutsche Telekom to build €1-billion AI data centre in Munich

Deutsche Telekom is making a major push into artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, teaming up with US chipmaker Nvidia to build a €1-billion ($1.1-billion) data centre in Munich, chief executive Timotheus Höttges announced.

“Without AI, you can forget about industry,” said Höttges. “Without AI, you can forget about Germany as a business location.”

Höttges said data processed in the Munich centre would remain entirely within Germany.

The technology itself would come from Germany and the US, he added, saying the joint project would remove any remaining excuses for European companies to delay adopting AI at scale.

Silicon Valley-based Nvidia is the world’s leading producer of high-performance chips used to train and operate AI systems. Nvidia boss Jensen Huang was present at the launch event.

German Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger hailed the initiative as “a great day for Germany and for Europe,” calling the investment a step toward “decisively seizing the opportunities of artificial intelligence.”

Deutsche Telekom, which already operates more than 180 data centres worldwide and provides conventional cloud services in partnership with Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, said the Munich site marks the start of a broader AI strategy.

The company hopes the facility will be part of a major European Union funding programme for so-called AI gigafactories — large-scale data centres with more than 100,000 specialized graphics processing units. The Munich site will start with around 10,000 such units.

Deutsche Telekom’s Bavarian AI factory will primarily target industrial clients. Early partners include robotics firm Agile Robots, enterprise software company SAP and Deutsche Bank.

Trump says China, other countries can’t have Nvidia’s top AI chips

Artificial intelligence giant Nvidia’s most advanced chips will be reserved for U.S. companies and kept out of China and other countries, U.S. President Donald Trump said.

During a taped interview that aired on Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes” program and in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said only U.S. customers should have access to the top-end Blackwell chips offered by Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization.