During its cabinet retreat at Schloss Neuhardenberg on August 25, 2026, the German federal government focused its economic agenda on artificial intelligence. Facing intense global competition and rising infrastructure demands, ministers discussed targeted steps to position Germany as a resilient tech and industrial location.
The centerpiece of the decisions is a comprehensive national datacenter strategy. The plan aims to at least quadruple high-performance computing and dedicated AI compute capacities across Germany by 2030. Regulatory frameworks and planning procedures for modern facilities are slated for optimization to meet this expansion timeline.
Strategically, the federal government placed its primary emphasis on industrial AI. Germany is targeted to become the leading global hub for AI applications in production control, sensor systems, and industrial automation, effectively leveraging the country's manufacturing base to secure long-term value creation.
The cabinet invited external experts for the consultation, including Roland Busch, CEO of Siemens AG, and Aidan Gomez, CEO of AI enterprise Cohere. Both executives shared perspectives on practical deployment requirements across industry sectors and discussed key digital policy priorities with government officials.
In his address, Aidan Gomez underlined the urgency of digital sovereignty for the German economy. He highlighted the necessity of sovereign, private AI infrastructures for public authorities and mid-sized enterprises to limit structural dependencies on US hyperscalers while protecting sensitive proprietary data.
The decisions reached at Neuhardenberg mark a policy shift toward removing infrastructure bottlenecks and establishing a foundation for advanced industrial AI implementations across the domestic economy.