The European Union launched the AI Continent Action Plan in April 2025. This action plan follows on from the InvestAI announcement at the AI Action Summit held in February 2025. The action plan outlines the actions the bloc will take to become a global leader in AI, a “leading AI continent”.
The plan discusses five key domains where it says that efforts must be accelerated and intensified for the EU to become an ‘AI continent’:
- AI data and computing infrastructures
- High-quality data for AI
- AI adoption in EU’s strategic sectors
- Strong AI talent base
- AI regulations
Key among them are the plans around AI infrastructure. AI infrastructure by way of powerful computing resources has been identified as key for AI model development and deployment. As such, this AI Continent Action Plan has proposed strengthening the network of AI Factories and establishing AI Factory Antennas. The AI factories initiative was announced in 2024 to “integrate AI-optimised supercomputers, large data resources, programming and training facilities, and human capital to create cutting-edge AI models and applications”. The AI factories will connect supercomputing centres, universities, startups, industry, the public sector and financial stakeholders to enhance collaboration in AI across Europe. The AI Factory Antennas are for participating states and will provide remote access to the supercomputing resources of the linked AI Factory located in another member state. The goal is to have the AI Factories and Antennas fully operational by the end of 2025.
Data centres are a key infrastructure for any AI venture and as such the Commission wants to triple the EU’s data centre capacity within the next five to seven years. They are also hoping to make these data centres sustainable by reducing the water footprint of these data centres and increasing their circularity through water reuse, efficiency and dry cooling.
To ensure that the EU has access to high quality data to train AI models, the Commission will be announcing a Data Union Strategy in the second half of 2025 which will aim to make more data available for training, simplify how businesses can comply with various EU data rules and look into ways to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. The EU will also be setting up Data Labs (as part of the AI Factories initiative), which will bring together and federate data from different AI factories and make this data available to AI developers.
According to data from Eurostat, only 13.5% companies in the EU had adopted AI as of 2024. This is a number the EU would like to increase. In line with this goal, various schemes have been announced, some examples of which are GenAI4EU initiative, GovTech Incubator, and AI in Science strategy. As part of the adoption strategy, the EU has also asked stakeholders to provide input regarding challenges and potential solutions in this area.
The action plan also proposes various programmes and schemes to increase the AI workforce in the EU to “prepare the next generation of AI experts in Europe”. To do so, the EU will increase the support for AI-related degrees, promote AI literacy to upskill and reskill the existing EU workforce, and support Member States and employers to attract and retain non-EU AI skilled talent.
The report stresses that “a workable and robust regulatory framework is crucial to creating a positive and competitive environment for EU AI companies to strive and for the EU’s AI ecosystem to innovate”. The EU has adopted the EU AI Act to “create the conditions for a well-functioning single market for AI”. The plan also discusses launching an AI Act service desk to give stakeholders a platform to ask for help and guidance on the AI Act. The EU has also stated that the effect of the application of the AI Act should be evaluated before any new legislation on AI can be considered.
The EU Continent Action Plan shows that the EU is on its way to position themselves at the forefront of AI innovation. We will be following the implementations and outcomes of the various initiatives set out in this action plan over the next couple of years with interest.
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