Investment summit: German government strikes AI deal with Nvidia

At the "Invest in Germany" summit in Berlin, the federal government has apparently secured cooperation deals with AI firm Nvidia and Amazon. Shortly before the investment summit in Berlin, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang delivered a slap in the face to Germany. It pained him, he said, to see how far this economically advanced country had fallen behind. And the 63-year-old CEO of the world’s most valuable company offered what he sees as sidelined Germany one piece of advice: "Just get to work!" (in German: "Macht euch einfach an die Arbeit!") Yet Jensen Huang apparently still believes in Germany. During a fireside chat with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, an important AI deal was agreed, according to media reports. As first reported by Handelsblatt, the federal government plans to contribute a nine-figure sum to the partnership. The combination of German engineering expertise and state-of-the-art AI technology is intended to give Germany’s business location lasting strength, Merz and Huang stressed. Amazon to invest 16 billion euros in Germany Another US conglomerate, internet giant Amazon, is planning to invest around 16 billion euros in Germany in 2027, as was also announced at the investment summit in Berlin. One third of the money is to be channelled into expanding data centres for Amazon’s cloud provider AWS. According to Amazon, around 3,000 employees already work for its cloud services subsidiary AWS in Germany. The planned 4.8 billion euros for AWS in Germany will be invested mainly in the Frankfurt am Main region. Companies urged to make their data available to AI Nvidia says it invested almost one billion dollars in Germany in 2025. The US company, headquartered in California, holds stakes in numerous German start-ups and established firms. Huang repeatedly emphasises that data must be treated as a national resource that should not be exported but used to develop a "national intelligence". Around a dozen German companies are expected to join the government-backed project with Nvidia – including Siemens, Audi and AI start-up Black Forest Labs from Freiburg im Breisgau. Chancellor Merz called on companies in Germany to open up their industrial data for artificial intelligence, in order to safeguard the competitiveness of sectors such as the car industry. Preserving Germany’s industrial base is a crucial advantage over other economies, the CDU leader argued. Did Friedrich Merz manage to win over leather-jacket fan Jensen Huang with his praise of traditional German virtues? In Berlin the chancellor actually said: "Germans are considered hard-working, they go to bed early and get up before sunrise. (...) On holiday we are the first on the beach and spread out our towels before breakfast. And when we agree delivery dates, we keep to them." Most recently, the outlook for the German economy had brightened slightly. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) now expects growth of 1.3 percent in Germany in 2026, after previously forecasting only 0.7 percent. Whether the further upswing will materialise thanks to investment by US tech giants remains to be seen.