Sawt Falasteen - Google opens AI centre as Berlin defends US tech reliance

German politicians hailed the move despite growing fears Europe is overly reliant on US tech giants that its own corporate players are struggling to match, particularly in artificial intelligence.

Google -- a major AI player alongside US firms such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Microsoft -- announced a 5.5 billion euro ($6.4 billion) investment drive in Germany last November.

"We have a whole range of outstanding researchers who are working on AI here in Berlin," said Philipp Justus, Google's country manager for Germany and VP Central Europe.

"This centre is intended to enable exchange with the academic community, with policymakers, and ultimately also with companies that are driving forward the application of AI."

In an expansion of its Berlin site, Google added an "AI demo space" for new innovations, a separate floor for research teams and an area where AI-focused events will be held.

Berlin mayor Kai Wegner said the move "underscores Berlin's international significance as a science and technology hub -- with a dynamic start-up scene, strong universities and an open society that enables and promotes innovation".

Karsten Wildberger, minister for digital transformation, stressed that "digital sovereignty is extremely important for Germany and Europe".

"But that does not mean doing everything alone," he said. "We continue to work in equal partnerships."

He added that it was "important that we become much more active in developing things under our own steam", listing key areas that included IT infrastructure and cloud computing.

- Battle for 'digital sovereignty' -

Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition has signalled it wants to make progress on the AI front as part of efforts to revive the struggling economy.

There have been a flurry of announcements related to AI recently, including from Deutsche Telekom and software company SAP.

But a good number of investments still come from the United States, fuelling worries at a time of strained ties under the administration of President Donald Trump.

"Digital sovereignty" has been the goal, with the aim of ensuring that Europeans' data is stored at home and protected under local laws, and reducing a heavy reliance on overseas players in the digital domain.

At a summit dedicated to the topic in November in Berlin, Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron backed the idea of favouring European firms in a bid to develop regional champions.

Despite its ambitions, Germany still faces "enormous" challenges to build up AI infrastructure and data storage capacities, said Janis Hecker of the digital business association Bitkom.

The government still "underestimates the importance of these technologies for value creation, but also for sovereignty and the defence of our values", he said.

The United States builds more computing capacity each year than Germany has in total, the group says.

According to its calculations, only one-thousandth of Germany's proposed central government budget for 2026 is dedicated to AI, and only a fraction of a massive pot of funding to modernise the country's infrastructure is dedicated to cutting-edge technologies.

K.Hassan--SF-PST