Overview
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz attended the groundbreaking and praised the plan as a bet on national potential, pledging political support.
- The 30-hectare site is designed to unite research, development, real-world testbeds, data centers and companies, with about 5,000 planned jobs.
- Seed funding of €100 million comes from the Dieter-Schwarz-Stiftung and the state of Baden-Württemberg, with total investment estimated at roughly €3 billion.
- Organizers cite roughly 80–90 partners, including SAP, Deutsche Telekom, Audi, Porsche, Stihl, Würth, Vodafone, Exyte and Bechtle.
- Experts urge Europe to focus on specialized, transparent applications rather than competing on large language models, as Germany also pursues an EU AI data-center bid with a decision expected by year-end.