Berlin (AFP) – The construction of data centers in Germany, leader in Europe in this sector boosted by the needs of artificial intelligence, and in the rest of the Old Continent will remain well below their development in the United States and China, according to a report published Tuesday.
Published on: 03/11/2026 - 1:37 p.m.
Europe will increase its overall capacity in data centers to 37 gigawatts by 2035, but it will remain far from the 160 gigawatts planned for the United States compared to 90 gigawatts for China, i.e. a power multiplied by three or four compared to 2025, estimates the German federation of digital companies Bitkom.
In Europe, it is Germany, where the computing power of these centers has almost doubled over the last decade, which will remain the most equipped country, with around 5.5 GW of IT power connected in 2030 compared to 3.3 today, followed by the United Kingdom which will increase from 2.9 to 4 GW.
“The United States and China are developing their capacities in completely different orders of magnitude,” summarizes the president of Bitkom, Ralf Wintergerst, for whom Germany must improve “the investment conditions” for these centers via “cheap electricity, suitable surfaces” and faster authorizations.
Boosted by the race for AI and high-performance computing (HPC), which should occupy more than half of German data centers by 2035, compared to 20% this year, investments in these structures increased by 57% in 2026, to a record level of 23.5 billion euros, Bitkom figures.
The American online commerce giant Amazon announced in October an investment of 16 billion euros in Germany for 2027, particularly in data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The French operator Data4 announced in 2025 an investment of 2 billion euros for the construction of a data center in Hanau, in Hesse, the nursery region of these sites - 1,200 - far ahead of Bavaria (more than 400) according to Bitkom.
These infrastructures, often criticized for their consumption of electricity and water as well as for the nuisance they can cause to local residents, have improved their energy efficiency.
But their demand for electricity is expected to increase sharply, from 23 billion kilowatt hours in 2026 to between 56 and 70 billion in 2035, or up to a tripling in less than ten years, according to the federation.
In the United States, these data centers have become an issue in the mid-term elections taking place this Tuesday, with Donald Trump being a strong supporter of their construction to ensure American hegemony in terms of AI.
© 2026 AFP
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