TITLE II / Chapter I – Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives (Art. 3-9)

Art. 3 Cloud and AI Development Act - General objective of the Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives arrow_right_alt

The Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives shall pursue the general objective of promoting research and innovation activities and achieving large-scale capacity throughout the Union’s cloud and AI ecosystem, by:
1. supporting the development and deployment of cutting-edge cloud and AI technologies, including next-generation resource-efficient data centre technologies, open cloud computing stack technologies, frontier AI, and physical and industrial AI;
2. reinforcing the Union’s data centre and cloud capacity to meet the growing demands driven by AI, foster innovation and ensure the resilience of the digital infrastructure;
3. stimulating the Union’s demand and promoting the deployment and uptake of cloud and AI technologies across the public sector, and the private sector, in line with the digital target of digital transformation of businesses, established by Decision (EU) 2022/2481.
The Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives shall pursue the following operational objectives:
1. supporting the development and deployment of advanced data centre technologies incorporating principles of energy efficiency and resource efficiency by design and throughout operations (operational objective 1);
2. supporting the development and deployment of cloud computing stacks supporting the Union’s technological autonomy (operational objective 2);
3. advancing Union’s capabilities in frontier AI (operational objective 3);
4. advancing Union’s capabilities in physical AI models and systems and fostering their deployment across the Union’s strategic sectors (operational objective 4);
5. accelerating the development and uptake of industrial AI across the Union’s strategic sectors (operational objective 5);
6. supporting the development of advanced platforms for the large-scale deployment of AI agents (operational objective 6);
7. increasing the development and adoption of AI models and systems across the Union’s public sectors (operational objective 7);
8. increasing the adoption of AI technologies at regional and local level, and the uptake of cloud computing services provided by European cloud computing service providers (operational objective 8).

Art. 4 Cloud and AI Development Act - Operational objectives of the Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives arrow_right_alt

Under operational objective 1, the Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives shall:
1. advance energy- and water-efficiency technologies for data centres, including innovative cooling, next-generation direct current data centres, waste heat utilisation solutions, and energy storage systems;
2. promote the integration of emerging quantum computing technologies for cloud and AI computing infrastructure operations;
3. develop AI-powered technologies for optimising server efficiency, utilisation rates and computing infrastructure operations;
4. design and optimise cloud and edge AI infrastructures to ensure effective integration with energy grids and to increase theirflexibility;
5. leverage data centres as anchor clients for advanced energy management systems harnessing diverse energy sources, including small modular reactors and clean hydrogen, alongside efficient energy storage solutions;
6. deploy test beds and pilot lines to integrate and test technologies developed under points (a) to (e), covering energy-efficient semiconductor and quantum computing prototypes.
Under operational objective 2, the Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives shall:
1. develop and pilot secure, resilient and performant open cloud computing stacks covering on-device edge, connectivity, data and AI tools, backend and service layers for strategic sectors;
2. develop AI-optimised servers and baseline software based on processors, accelerators and quantum accelerators designed and manufactured in the Union, alongside next-generation ultra-high density and long-term data storage;
3. boost data availability for AI via open-source middleware platforms underpinning common European data spaces;
4. foster the creation of open-source software foundations supporting open-source components;
5. establish a catalogue of European open cloud computing solutions developed under points (a) to (d) of this paragraph.
Under operational objective 3, the Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives shall support pioneering projects in frontier AI that develop frontier AI models and systems as strategic assets, including in key sectors such as cybersecurity.
Under operational objective 4, the Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives shall:
1. accelerate the development of a European physical AI stack, supporting model training and system development and deployment, in particular for robotics and autonomous vehicles and drones;
2. facilitate access to, and the collection and preparation of, specific datasets for physical AI;
3. support the development, testing and validation in real-world environments of physical AI models and systems.
Under operational objective 5, the Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives shall:
1. accelerate the development and uptake of sectoral AI models and systems across the Union’s strategic industrial sectors;
2. facilitate access to the necessary computing resources and AI tools required to develop and operationalise AI models and systems tailored to industrial sector needs;
3. enable secure large-scale data pooling for collaborative AI training through technologies enhancing privacy and preserving confidentiality.
Under their operational objective 6, the Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives shall:
1. support the development of advanced resilient and secure platforms for the development, deployment and orchestration of advanced AI agents at scale;
2. facilitate the development of targeted testing and experimentation methodologies of advanced AI agents and their orchestration throughout their lifecycle.
Under operational objective 7 the Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives shall:
1. accelerate the technological development and uptake of AI models and systems in critical public sector domains;
2. develop AI models and systems that increase the effectiveness of public service delivery and accessibility for the general public, improve decision-making, and simplify administrative procedures;
3. promote the sharing and reusing of training data and AI models across the Union’s public services;
4. facilitate secure, privacy-enhancing health data reuse for AI models and tools in healthcare;
5. facilitate the development, testing and deployment of AI models and tools in the automotive sector, including for autonomous driving.
Under operational objective 8 the Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives shall:
1. promote the broad adoption of AI by private and public sector organisations, including SMEs and SMCs, through the network of Experience and Acceleration Centres for AI (‘Centres for AI’);
2. develop a common cloud and AI curriculum, drawing on the network of Centres for AI and other relevant European initiatives;
3. promote the sharing of public sector data centre services and cloud computing services by supporting a European public sector cloud federation (‘EuroCloud Federation’);
4. support the procurement of data centre services and cloud computing services for Union entities and public sector bodies.

Art. 5 Cloud and AI Development Act - Experience and Acceleration Centres for AI arrow_right_alt

Each Member State shall establish Experience and Acceleration Centres for AI (‘Centres for AI’). Those Centres for AI shall build on the European digital innovation hubs established under Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2021/694 and, where applicable, any successor entities established under Union law.
The objectives of the Centres for AI shall be to:
1. support the integration and scaling-up of AI use cases in strategic industrial and public sectors;
2. accelerate the broad adoption of cloud and AI technologies at regional and local levels, notably for SMEs, SMCs and public sector bodies, in line with the ‘AI first’ principle;
3. leverage relevant infrastructure to accelerate the development and fine-tuning of AI models and systems.
The Centres for AI shall be tasked, in particular, with:
1. helping organisations accelerate their digital transformation through access to and use of AI technologies, including by connecting organisations with European providers of cloud and AI technologies;
2. ensuring or providing access to relevant upskilling and reskilling schemes, in close collaboration with the AI Skills Academy;
3. facilitating the transfer of expertise across regions;
4. supporting the scaling-up of spin-offs and start-ups emerging from universities, incubators and other accelerators by facilitating access to clients, companies and organisations seeking specialised AI services.
The Commission may adopt implementing acts detailing the procedure for establishing Centres for AI and further arrangements concerning the participant organisation profile, selection criteria and details on the implementation of the tasks and functions. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 46(2).
Centres for AI shall have substantial overall autonomy as regards their organisation, composition and working methods, in compliance with the objectives set out in this Regulation.
A network of Centres for AI shall be established to support collaboration and the exchange of best practices among Centres for AI, and to provide specialised services across regions where the required skills or compute capacity are not available locally.
Member States and the Commission shall cooperate with existing networks established under other Union initiatives, including Union initiatives in the field of semiconductors and data.

Art. 6 Cloud and AI Development Act - Implementation of the Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives arrow_right_alt

Art. 7 Cloud and AI Development Act - National cloud and AI strategies arrow_right_alt

By [same day as entry into force plus one year], Member States shall establish national cloud and AI strategies (the ‘national strategies’).
The national strategies shall include at least the following:
1. key objectives and priorities for cloud and AI adoption, in line with the ‘AI first’ principle, as well as a governance and monitoring framework to achieve those objectives and priorities;
2. measures to accelerate the development and adoption of cloud and AI at national, regional and local level, particularly among public sector bodies, SMEs and SMCs, including by supporting the Centres for AI referred to in Article 5 as entry points to the European AI innovation ecosystem;
3. measures to support the broad deployment and uptake of AI in strategic industrial and public sectors, including in healthcare, energy and mobility;
4. measures to support the deployment of data centre capacity, with a particular focus on high-value data centres delivering significant economic and societal benefits while adhering to high environmental and energy-efficiency standards;
5. measures to invest in high-intensity computing infrastructure, including AI factories, AI gigafactories and quantum computers as strategic national and cross-border assets supporting research, development and industrial AI deployment across strategic sectors;
6. measures to support the development of cloud and AI capabilities and promote excellence and innovation, including through public procurement measures, and public procurement of innovation measures set out in Article 33;
7. measures to support the development of cloud computing stack technologies built upon open hardware and software to strengthen technological sovereignty and enhance the competitiveness of strategic European industries;
8. measures to ensure the accessibility of high-quality data for AI development, notably by preventing data bottlenecks encountered by organisations.
National strategies shall be consistent with the objectives of this Regulation
Member States shall ensure that their national strategies are consistent with, and contribute to, the associated digital targets established under Article 4 of Decision (EU) 2022/2481.
The Member States shall notify the Commission of their national strategies within three months of their adoption. Member States shall assess their national strategies at least every three years on the basis of key performance indicators and, where necessary, update them. The Commission shall monitor the adoption and revision of the national strategies.
The European Artificial Intelligence Board established by Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the ‘AI Board’) shall advise and assist the Member States as regards the coordination of national strategies. The AI Board shall facilitate exchange of best practices among Member States.

Art. 8 Cloud and AI Development Act - Criteria for frontier AI priority projects arrow_right_alt

The Commission may, by means of a decision, recognise as frontier AI priority projects, projects selected through open calls for expression of interest that support grand challenge 3 set out in Annex I, provided that the following criteria are fulfilled:

it is a pioneering project, focused on the support and scaling-up of frontier AI technologies;
it is undertaken by a European digital infrastructure consortium established pursuant Decision (EU) 2022/2481 or another legal entity eligible for funding under Union law and it involves the participation of at least three Member States;
the participating Member States pool computing time and other relevant resources to support the implementation of the designated project.

Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA)