The AI Act clarifies what is and is not permitted in Europe. In part 1, we wrote about how the EU is using this law to try to control the behavior of AI, not the technology itself. The higher the risk, the stricter the conditions. Responsibility for what AI does is central, but even the best-designed rules remain theoretical if they cannot be put into practice. You can draw up the playbook as tightly as you like, but without a field, ball, and shoes, you'll be stuck watching from the sidelines. AI requires more than principles. It requires computing power. Not abstract, but concrete: specialized chips, energy, data centers, cloud environments, and a digital infrastructure that connects it all. Without access to that physical engine, there is no training, no application, and no scale. And that is precisely where Europe is lagging behind. A language model, medical image recognition, or predictive algorithm does not work without millions of calculations per second. These run on powerful hardware, with the right environment and security. Even the daily use of AI, such as a chatbot or customer service bot, remains dependent on that underlying computing power. In Europe, that infrastructure is often scarce, expensive, or dependent on others. That is a problem, especially for public institutions and young companies.
In part 1, I already mentioned that the AI Act places high demands on organizations. Explaining what your system does, accounting for where data comes from, assessing whether your application falls into a risk category. But now there is a fundamental layer underneath that: can the system even run in a European context?
In his report on European competitiveness and the business and investment climate earlier this year, former ECB director and former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi warned that without digital infrastructure, the EU simply cannot compete on equal terms. He described the lack of computing power not as a technical inconvenience, but as a strategic vulnerability. The message was clear: anyone who wants to participate in AI must not only know what is allowed, but above all ensure that it is possible. That call is now being translated into policy in the Cloud and AI Development Act, part of the broader AI Continent strategy. The act aims to ensure the structural expansion of European computing power: a tripling of data center capacity in five to seven years. With an eye for sustainability, distribution, and speed. Also with the aim of being able to host public AI applications in Europe without having to resort to platforms outside its own jurisdiction.
The law therefore covers more than just the cloud. It touches on geopolitics, innovation, energy, and the preconditions for a credible AI policy. Because as long as hospitals, governments, and startups do not have access to affordable, reliable computing power, responsible innovation will quickly become a luxury product. At the same time, Brussels is trying to look ahead. In addition to traditional cloud capacity, the EU is investing in quantum technology, post-exascale computing, and hybrid infrastructures. Very high-tech, in other words. Not because everything will be different tomorrow, but because strategic technology requires pre-emptive action now. If you want to secure your position, you shouldn't wait until the game has already started.
What is at stake? The credibility of European AI policy, because rules without infrastructure are like promises without a budget. For startups, this determines whether you can test, train, and grow without having to go anywhere. For governments, it means whether you can maintain control over where sensitive systems are running, and for citizens, it raises the question of whether public technology is truly public.
The AI Act set the bar for responsible use. This law must ensure that this bar can actually be reached. The rules of the game are in place, but without a playing field, there can be no game.