Europe is one of the largest markets for AI datacenter infrastructure, but its own companies capture only a small share of the value. According to the Global Electronics Association, EU-headquartered firms account for 6% of the bloc's datacenter semiconductor market, 7% of server manufacturing and assembly, and 8% of cloud infrastructure. The EU's Cloud and AI Development Act aims to at least triple datacenter capacity within five to seven years, which would further increase demand for imported hardware.
The GEA report argues that Europe needs an end-to-end strategy rather than piecemeal support for individual sectors. It identifies servers, driven by AI processing requirements, as the primary growth driver of the entire electronics industry since 2024, with forecasts suggesting they will become the largest electronics segment by 2030, ahead of smartphones and automotive electronics. The report also calls datacenter, cloud, and AI infrastructure the most strategically important market for EU technological sovereignty.
The report acknowledges that Europe cannot realistically build this supply chain using EU-headquartered companies alone. It recommends using the attractiveness and growth of the European market to encourage global leaders to expand their manufacturing footprint in the bloc, possibly through partnerships with European technology firms and research organizations. This approach echoes the US push to rebuild domestic manufacturing, though it relies more on incentives than on tariffs or threats to exclude foreign products.