Von der Leyen puts EU AI investment need at 500 billion euros

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that artificial intelligence companies in the European Union will require investments worth 500 billion euros, most of it for highly advanced models, chips and other hardware.

Why it matters: The figure sets the scale Brussels is now attaching to technological sovereignty, well beyond the bloc's existing AI funding vehicles, and von der Leyen said an ambitious proposal on financing it is still to come.

Data as of European Commission statement 26/2441 of November 13, 2026, following the informal European Council meeting in Dublin; the Commission's press corner page did not render its text to this reader, so the statement was read through ORF's agency report, in German, and Bytes Europe's report of the same day, both read in full. Developing item.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said artificial intelligence companies in the European Union would require investments worth 500 billion euros, with the funding most needed to develop highly advanced AI models and in chips and other hardware. She spoke on Friday after the discussion with EU leaders in Dublin, where artificial intelligence was the meeting’s main topic and leaders weighed how Europe keeps pace with the United States and China.

Von der Leyen said Europe is creating more tech startups than the US but that many fail to receive the support they need to scale, and that the EU must attract private investment, reform its investment rules and agree innovation funds, with money also to come from the new long-term EU budget. She said she will present an ambitious proposal on more funding for technological sovereignty, a push meant to reduce Europe’s dependence on US and Chinese technology.

Von der Leyen puts EU AI investment need at 500 billion euros

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