Speaking at the inaugural Datacloud Energy & ESG 2025 event in Brussels, Lex Coors called for immediate, large-scale investment in AI computing and energy infrastructure to prevent the continent from losing out to the US and China.
Coors, who is also the chief data centre technology and engineering officer at Digital Realty, argued that Europe needs €50 billion for AI compute now – not by 2027.
“AI delay is not linear,” Coors said. “AI delay is exponential, so we will be light years behind the US and China if we don't act now.”
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The EU’s current digital infrastructure strategy spans a proposed €200 billion investment, including more than €43 billion for semiconductors under the CHIPS Act — funding the bloc expects to be matched by long-term private investment.
However, only €28 billion has been allocated for AI compute, and most of that relies on private sector funding, with deployment earmarked for 2027 or later.
In his keynote, Coors said that Europe’s current plans for AI chips are insufficient, highlighting that the vast majority of that allocation was set aside for general hardware, not AI-specific chips.
He also cast doubt on whether private investors would commit to such long-term risks without clearer incentives, stating that Europe needs 500,000 accelerators now, not years from now.
“If we want to make sure that we don't lose track and that the private sector will want invest, they need to have some guarantees,” Coors said. “It's not as simple as coming up with this €50-100 billion figure and saying ‘oh, by the way, we have new regulatory complexity coming up in the year, too bad for your investment.”
Beyond chips, Coors warned that Europe’s energy supply is a major constraint, estimating that the region is at least 40 gigawatts short of what is needed to support AI development.
While the US is already building large-scale AI training facilities, such as xAI’s Colossus supercomputing cluster in Memphis, Tennessee, Europe lacks similar projects.
Coors called for increased investment in clean energy sources such as small modular reactors (SMRs).
While the US and UK have pushed ahead to explore SMR expansions, some European nations remain hesitant over nuclear energy, with Germany opting to completely phase out its nuclear energy production.
Coors warned that such fragmentation, which also extends to energy policies and high electricity prices are actively discouraging private investment in Europe.
“If you look at the US, the energy price is half of ours. Even when we had gas from the Netherlands and Russia, we did not even come close to the US price. There is a fundamental flaw in the whole infrastructure setup.
Europe is looking at building and operating SMRs to boost its energy supply, a plan that will created by 2030, a plan that, in Coors’s view is too little, too late.
He said: “If the European Commission believes that energy is strategic for the digital economy, they may have to rethink this whole infrastructure. There are no longer countries just thinking for themselves. No way. We need to do this as one Europe.
Europe is planning a 54-gigawatt power grid upgrade by 2030, but Coors argued that isn’t fast enough given AI’s explosive growth.
“Generative AI has only existed for three years, and we’re just now starting to build training factories. We either build now or buy forever.”
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