Microsoft in Germany. Which regions will benefit?
The money will be used to increase data center capacity for AI and cloud computing applications. This is the largest single investment in 40 years of Microsoft history in Germany. This also includes a training program on: artificial intelligence, which is expected to reach up to 1.2 million people. The plan assumes the creation of new production capacities in Bedburg, Bergheim and Elsdorf near Cologne.
Microsoft said that the decision to invest was made due to the proximity to its largest customers in Europe, a pharmaceutical company Bayer and RWE, i.e. the largest energy company across the Oder. This is intended to ensure low latencies in data exchange between data centers and applications. Hesse should also benefit from the investments. The region between the Rhine and Main rivers is the leading data center location in Germany because of its large internet headquarters DE-CIX is located in Frankfurt am Main. Huge amounts of digital data are exchanged via it every second.
The Microsoft cloud center already existing in the region is to be expanded. The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst (CDU), approved this investment “a strong signal for Germany and a great contribution to structural changes in the Rhineland region”. – Microsoft is making a significant contribution to sustainably supporting transformation. The fact that a global player makes such an investment in North Rhine-Westphalia is a sign of trust and the result of a specific location policy, commented the politician.
Microsoft and AI investments
Germany tops the list of announced investments by the world’s leading software company. Last November, Microsoft’s president promised to invest in… Great Britain EUR 2.9 billion, to spur the development of AI applications. Just over a month earlier he promised in Australia investments around 3 billion euros.
Microsoft initially invested several billion dollars in the Californian start-up OpenAItaking care of artificial intelligence. The latter presented its AI bot ChatGPT in November 2022. In the meantime Microsoft invested another billions in building large computing power for training artificial intelligence. The group uses AI technology, among others: in your Bing search engine. The main competitor is Google with its Gemini AI program.
