Europe's AI ambitions rest on somebody else's supply chain

Europe is one of the world's largest markets for AI datacenter infrastructure, but its own local companies capture only a fraction of the value, because overseas suppliers dominate chips, servers, and cloud infrastructure. According to the Global Electronics Association (GEA), EU-headquartered companies account for only six percent of the bloc's datacenter semiconductor market, seven percent of server manufacturing and assembly, and eight percent of cloud infrastructure. Its report, "From Chips to Systems: Building an End-to-End EU Strategy for Data Centre, Cloud Infrastructure and AI," says that Europe's Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA) aims to at least triple the bloc's datacenter capacity within five to seven years. The association argues that Europe needs policies to develop its own industrial ecosystem and capture more of the "unprecedented demand for servers, electronic systems and semiconductor components" CADA is expected to stimulate. Europe has fallen behind other regions in much of the electronics supply chain. …