🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

€20 billion AI fund still lacks clear access rules

• EU set up a €20 billion program for AI gigafactories (very large-scale data centers built to run AI workloads) 1. By June 20, 2025 the bloc logged 76 applications, with decisions later in 2025 and operations from 2028; grants versus loans and eligibility remain unclear 1.
• Deutsche Telekom and Schwarz Group must choose private funding now or wait for public backing, while they still do not know if their telecom–retail partnership fits the program 1. The European Commission signed a memorandum with the European Investment Bank (the EU’s long-term lending arm) and the European Investment Fund (the EU’s specialist investor focused on small and medium-sized enterprises) to vet bids, yet criteria and financing terms remain undisclosed 1.

German data center developers should lock in waste heat partnerships now

• Germany’s Energy Efficiency Act makes new sites from July 2026 reuse 10% of energy as waste heat, rising to 20% by 2028 2. AI racks for the Nvidia GB300 generation (Nvidia’s Blackwell-era data center platform) near 120 kW versus 6–10 kW before 2.
• Operators and cooling vendors should map municipalities with district heating plans 2. Berlin’s Spandau with NTT DATA delivers 8 MW to over 10,000 through a 2 km pipeline, while Telehouse in Frankfurt supplies over 60% of a residential district’s heating 32. Carrier supplied heat pumps for Norderstedt’s 1.8 MW project 4, and makers can lift residual heat from roughly 20–30°C to around 65–70°C as gigafactory picks arrive in 2025 31.