(Bloomberg) — The Schwarz Group, Germany’s largest retailer and proprietor of grocery store chain Lidl, is planning to pitch the federal government to be the lead developer of a serious knowledge heart central to Europe’s synthetic intelligence efforts.
The privately held retailer, which is managed by billionaire founder Dieter Schwarz, will current its plan to spend billions of euros on Friday, based on individuals acquainted with the matter, who requested to not be recognized discussing personal deliberations.
The Schwarz Group’s ambitions come as Germany seeks a bit of the €20 billion ($23.4 billion) European Union subsidies earmarked for brand new AI “gigafactories.” Germany’s digital minister, Karsten Wildberger, will meet with firms together with the Schwarz Group, Deutsche Telekom AG and SAP SE to debate “digital sovereignty” on Friday, based on an invite considered by Bloomberg.
A spokesperson for the Schwarz Group mentioned it was all for an information heart bid however declined to remark additional. Deutsche Telekom confirmed its participation within the authorities assembly. SAP declined to remark.
A spokesperson for the Digital Ministry confirmed the assembly and mentioned in an e mail that the federal government needs “to cut back technological dependencies in Germany and Europe and massively broaden our personal experience in key applied sciences comparable to AI, cloud, semiconductors and cyber safety.”
Europe is dashing to spend money on AI infrastructure, as lawmakers and firms concern the continent is lagging behind within the essential tech and is simply too reliant on US suppliers. In January, OpenAI launched Stargate, a mission that pledged to spend as a lot as $500 billion on AI within the US.
Three months later, the European Fee announced it could contribute funding for as much as 5 AI “gigafactories” – large knowledge warehouses, every geared up with round 100,000 superior chips, designed to develop AI fashions. The bloc mentioned the funding would spur personal funding that might in the end triple Europe’s knowledge heart capability in 5 to seven years.
A number of German companies despatched letters of curiosity to the European Fee detailing their strategy to constructing the brand new services, based on individuals acquainted with the plans. The Schwarz Group now needs to steer a joint German bid and is hoping to persuade different companies to hitch.
It’s not clear if the proposal to steer the hassle will work, the individuals mentioned.
Earlier this yr, the Schwarz Group mentioned working with a consortium that included German giants Siemens, SAP and Deutsche Telekom. However these talks fell by, based on German media reviews. SAP CEO Christian Klein, who initially supported a European different to Stargate, mentioned earlier in July that Europe ought to make investments in a different way.
A Deutsche Telekom spokesperson wrote in an e mail this week that the corporate “is able to take a number one position within the German AI gigafactory initiative.” However the consultant didn’t touch upon any partnerships or its financing methods.
In June, the telecom operator mentioned it could open a cloud-computing heart in 2026 that has 10,000 chips from Nvidia. That’s a tenth of the chips the European Union has mentioned every proposed gigafactory can have.
The Schwarz Group is a relative latecomer to tech. It began constructing its personal cloud-computing service, referred to as StackIt, in 2017, a part of a seek for companies with higher margins than retail. The German firm has additionally mentioned the restricted ensures US cloud suppliers supplied on knowledge privateness and safety drove its technique. “No person may inform us the place the info is saved,” Rolf Schumann, a co-CEO of Schwarz Digits, the corporate’s IT division, mentioned in a Could interview. “So we mentioned, ‘We’d like our personal cloud.’”
Schumann mentioned on the time that the Schwarz Group was planning to speculate €11 billion in its cloud unit over the following three to 5 years. Amazon, the main cloud supplier, spent $78 billion in total capital expenditure in 2024 alone.
The Schwarz Group hasn’t settled on an actual monetary plan for the brand new facility, mentioned the individuals acquainted with the plans. The retailer is at the moment constructing an information heart in Luebbenau, a city south of Berlin, that it hopes will flip into the gigafactory.
