Saed News: Germany is launching a €125 million artificial intelligence competition to help Europe develop its own leading AI laboratories amid global competition.
According to SAEDNEWS, citing Euronews, this initiative—launched by Germany’s federal innovation agency SPRIND under the name “Next Frontier AI”—aims to financially support companies that could eventually become a European equivalent of OpenAI or DeepSeek.
The program comes as governments across Europe are increasingly concerned about dependence on American and Chinese companies in the field of artificial intelligence.
Yann Costard, head of SPRIND’s challenge division, said: “Germany is taking the lead in this field because there is no longer time to wait for other players. Global competition does not wait, so we must act now, and that is why we are doing this in a European way.”
Most leading AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, are based in the United States and have raised billions in private funding. China is also moving rapidly. DeepSeek released its V4 model in April, increasing pressure on Europe to build stronger domestic AI companies.
According to SPRIND, the initiative will run for 24 months in three phases. In the first phase, up to 10 teams can receive up to €3 million each. Up to 6 teams advance to the second phase, receiving up to €8 million each. In the final phase, up to 3 teams can receive up to €15.5 million each.
Costard said the agency expects “from a few hundred to several thousand applications” from across Europe.
However, in a context where the US and China are investing billions in advanced AI, €125 million alone is unlikely to be sufficient for Europe to gain a competitive edge.
Costard said: “The €125 million we are providing is only the first step.”
He added: “The explicit goal of this competition is to attract billions in additional funding. We are using this €125 million to build technology to a point where we can truly see the potential of the new AI paradigms we are pursuing.”
He said that if a company is to attract “billions of euros” in funding—which he believes is entirely possible—Europe must focus less on improving existing AI systems and more on developing entirely new approaches.
“We cannot try to compete with today’s Anthropic and its products. We must rely on our ability to create new paradigms and new capabilities for AI that current methods cannot develop.”
Part of the initiative is tied to a broader debate in Europe about technological sovereignty and startup growth.
European policymakers and founders increasingly argue that promising startups often struggle to scale in Europe and ultimately relocate to the United States.
In March, the European Commission formally proposed “EU Inc.”, a unified company law across the continent.
Costard said that while a less fragmented startup environment could help, public funding must also become faster and less bureaucratic if Europe wants to retain top AI talent.
