📋 Tender Overview
"Frighteningly intelligent": This is how US entrepreneur Elon Musk described the new versions of the chatbot Grok from his software company xAI. Today at 5:00 a.m. German time, the Grok-3 model family was presented.
State Minister for Digital Affairs, Dr. Fabian Mehring, says of the current developments: "xAI is once again showing us in Europe what speed means: In order to develop the chatbot Grok-3, the company built the Colossus supercomputer for training the AI. When it started last year, this data center already had 100,000 state-of-the-art AI chips - now there are 200,000. The construction time in the state of Tennessee was just four months. After this time, in this country, the building application has often not even been stamped in receipt or a dormouse report has only just been commissioned.
Regardless of whether the high expectations of the Grok model family actually become reality in the end, one thing is already clear: these rapid developments must shake us up in Europe. After all, the company value of xAI is already around 45 billion. That is in the league of companies like adidas or BASF - and significantly more than Deutsche Bank, for example. In short: the sound of the future is in the digital economy and in future technologies such as AI. For new growth, our country also needs new ideas in new markets. If we want to maintain a minimum level of technical sovereignty and Germany's future prosperity is not to be crushed between Asia and the USA, our country therefore needs a strategy for AI. This also implies that we set clear goals: I want to create the conditions for us to have ten companies with a market capitalization of 100 billion listed on a single European tech stock exchange in ten years' time," said Mehring, who has already introduced the first elements of an AI strategy into the public discussion.
A sovereign production chain for AI and quantum chips in Europe
The minister sees a key dependency today in modern AI chips, which are at the heart of projects such as the Colossus supercomputer or "Stargate". In order to keep up, Mehring wants to establish essential parts of the value chain for the most advanced AI and quantum chips in Europe: "As long as we in Europe are not able to design and manufacture high-performance chips, we cannot be digitally sovereign. There are considerable economic opportunities, especially in the design sector, to benefit from future trends without chasing after business areas that have already been lost." Mehring also points out that the concentrated demand for advanced chips by European companies and start-ups is a basic requirement for an economically viable production chain for AI chips in the EU.
Regulatory moratorium and "AI electricity price" for better framework conditions
Mehring also proposes a moratorium on EU regulations for the digital space. A "phase of legislative consolidation and homogenization" is needed, said the minister. If Mehring has his way, there should only be one golden rule for the time being: no new restrictions until all existing regulations have been harmonized and standardized across Europe. The next federal government, as the largest payer in the EU, should work towards this immediately and forcefully and, if necessary, take a special national path, says the minister. Because: "We cannot afford a second GDPR fiasco when it comes to AI," said Mehring.
Bavaria's digital minister is also calling for an internationally competitive "AI electricity price" for the operation of modern data centers that meet certain conditions in terms of sustainability. Mehring: "High-performance AI data centers are the factories of the future. They must also be located in Europe and be able to be operated competitively from here if we want to maintain a minimum level of digital sovereignty," said the minister.
