The EU is set to unveil its long-awaited tech sovereignty plan on June 3, with the package expected to include the Cloud and Artificial Intelligence Development Act and Chips Act 2.0, aimed at encouraging sovereign European cloud, Artificial Intelligence and semiconductor capabilities. The push is intended to strengthen European Artificial Intelligence infrastructure and reduce reliance on Chinese and U.S. dominance. The Cloud and Artificial Intelligence Development Act specifically targets tripling EU data center capacity within five to seven years, with a focus on Artificial Intelligence giga-factories and hyperscale infrastructure.
Industry figures say those ambitions may be moving faster than the region’s ability to build the physical infrastructure needed to support them. Matt Salter, global head of data centers at Onnec, said planning, power availability, supply chain constraints, skills shortages, rising build costs and stricter compliance requirements are already slowing projects down. He argued that new construction alone will not be enough and said retrofitting existing facilities will have to play a central role if operators are to support denser Artificial Intelligence workloads without disruption.
Alexandra Thorer, chief growth officer at BCS Consultancy, said demand-side and delivery constraints are increasingly shaping where and how infrastructure can be built across Europe. She pointed to power constraints, planning complexity, supply chain pressures and a limited pool of specialist skills as major factors. She said success will depend on closer alignment between policy, energy strategy and infrastructure planning, and that countries offering clearer development pathways while balancing sustainability and local requirements will be better positioned to attract investment.
The debate also highlights wider uncertainty around digital sovereignty beyond the EU. Mark Samson, solutions engineering director for Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Cloudera, said the U.K. is facing delays because organizations still lack a clear definition and legislative direction on sovereignty. He warned that many businesses moved into cloud and Artificial Intelligence deals without properly accounting for sovereignty requirements, only to find expected savings disappear. He said organizations need a clearer understanding of where their data is stored, how it moves and which regulatory frameworks apply.
The package reflects a broader shift in how governments view digital infrastructure. Across Europe, digital sovereignty and Artificial Intelligence capability are increasingly being treated as interconnected, with infrastructure seen less as a purely commercial asset and more as a strategic foundation for economic resilience and long-term innovation. The central question is whether the policy architecture now being assembled can unlock enough capacity, or whether the gap between ambition and delivery will continue to widen.
