Brad Smith, vice chairman and president of Microsoft, unveiled the financing arrangement on February 15 during an event in the capital of Germany dedicated to the company’s future collaborations in cloud development and artificial intelligence (AI).
Microsoft will concentrate on constructing new data centers nationwide and educating individuals on developing AI capabilities. As per a report by Reuters, Microsoft has recently made its most substantial investment in Germany in four decades.
Europe is demonstrating itself to be a fertile investment environment for key technology developers. The French Finance Ministry issued a statement the same day that disclosed Google’s intentions to establish a novel AI-focused center in France.
The announcement specifies that the center will be located in Paris and employ nearly three hundred researchers and engineers to assist the nation in its AI endeavors.
This declaration arrives mere days after the proclamation of Google’s “AI Opportunity Initiative for Europe” on February 12. Google has announced that it will allocate 25 million euros ($26.9 million) under this initiative to support skill development in the AI sector for European citizens.
Google stated that it is collaborating with academic institutions, businesses, civil society, and governments in the European Union to provide AI training to local firms, with 10 million of those hours devoted to workers who will require such abilities to prevent themselves from “falling behind.”
In 2023, the Italian government announced a comparable endeavor whereby it pledged to allocate millions of euros towards enhancing the digital proficiencies of laborers who faced the imminent threat of unemployment due to automation and artificial intelligence.
These investments in the infrastructure and expertise of artificial intelligence in Europe coincide with the drafting of the EU AI Act by members of the EU parliament. Regulators approved the preliminary agreement for the legislation on February 13. The parliamentary vote is scheduled for April of this year.
The European Union AI Act, when enacted in August 2023, would rank second only to China in terms of the earliest regulatory frameworks governing the development and implementation of AI.