Sometimes throwing money at the problem isn’t enough to win the big game, and the EU is discovering that the same applies to AI development. The union’s new investment in AI may not be enough to catch up to the US and China.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a €200 billion union investment in the technology on Feb. 10, calling it a “supercharged” approach to get on par with competitors. The investment will funnel cash into “AI gigafactories,” data centers aimed at making up the difference between the union, the US, and China.
US and Chinese competition is putting the EU in a situation where it feels it needs to act, F5 Field CISO Chuck Herrin told IT Brew.
“They realize that we’re in a race, but they’re joining the race late and they’re slower than the other racers, so it feels like a very defensive move,” Herrin said.
Chips ahoy. The investment comes after an announced restriction from the Biden administration in January on AI-capable chips from the US that targeted 17 EU member states, primarily, but not exclusively, in Eastern Europe. That restriction could have ramifications on the US position in the AI market, Semiconductor Industry Association President and CEO John Neuffer told AP last month.
“The new rule risks causing unintended and lasting damage to America’s economy and global competitiveness in semiconductors and AI by ceding strategic markets to our competitors,” Neuffer said.
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Herrin noted that there’s just not a realistic path for the EU to develop their own chip manufacturing, he told IT Brew, making purchasing components a necessity.
“If they’re trying to start from scratch, I don’t think they’ve got much of a chance,” he said.
Crumbled cookie. But Cem Dilmegani, AIMultiple principal analyst, told IT Brew that he sees the restrictions as aimed at China, not Europe. Selling chips to other countries comes with a risk that they may be shuffled into Chinese shell companies, Dilmegani said, and that’s the real target of the restrictions.
“The whole point is to isolate China and keep them away from these chips and you need a global approach for that—what they rolled out is a decent attempt,” Dilmegani said. “Of course, if I was a Nvidia executive, I wouldn’t be saying these things, but from a geopolitical perspective, it makes sense.”
Dilmegani added that the EU’s AI capabilities are most likely to be driven by the gigafactories and chips they manage to purchase—western European states are not affected by the restrictions and will see the benefit. The real resource in question is not the hardware, but the power.
“It is much more feasible, rather than manufacturing chips, [to buy] chips and then [build] large data centers,” Dilmegani said. “It’s more of a problem of electricity, space, and getting access to chips.”