Von der Leyen’s State of the Union AI data-centre dream will be a nightmare

In last year’s State of the Union speech, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen argued that European AI was “essential for our future independence”. Yet her commission’s plan to fast-track data centres across the bloc risks doing the exact opposite: accelerating the very reliance on US Big Tech that it claims to be escaping. In the process it will trample over environmental protections and override public participation rights. As von der Leyen gears up to talk up her data centre plans in the State of the Union address next Wednesday (16 September), MEPs must question who will own and benefit from these data centres. The dirty reality behind the EU’s data centre expansion Von der Leyen’s European AI mission took shape in the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA) proposed in June 2026. By forcing member states to create “data centre acceleration zones”, CADA fast-tracks infrastructure development through expedited permits and grid connections, blatantly overriding the environmental safeguards and – in a direct affront to European democratic norms – limiting citizens’ and communities’ ability to legally challenge the very projects that affect them. It is therefore no surprise that Big Tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are eyeing this as an opportunity for expansion. Our research at SOMO shows that Microsoft and Google have the most data centre projects announced or under construction in the EU. US Big Tech are not only developing their own projects but they are also the primary clients for ‘co-locations’- firms that lease data centre capacity to others. Co-location companies, even European ones, are mostly locked in to long-term contracts with Big Tech firms and are largely backed by US financial behemoths like Blackrock and KKR. Simply allowing more data centres to be built will not deliver Europeans more control over or value from digital infrastructure. The European Commission itself acknowledges that co-location firms rely on Big Tech as ‘anchor customers’ to guarantee returns. Just as the EU talks up its tech sovereignty plans, co-location firms actively pitch Europe as a great opportunity for US investors and Big Tech. Worryingly, nowhere in the commission’s proposal is there a clause barring Big Tech firms from benefitting from the data centre fast-tracking. Safeguards that benefit Big Tech The EU Commission claims that CADA includes safeguards to prevent excessive market dominance and prioritise smaller firms. Yet the ugly truth is that these safeguards are toothless against the reality of this market. Because data centre operations are notoriously opaque, authorities would likely not know who the true beneficiaries are until the concrete is already poured. A co-location company, even if it’s European, could build data centres within an acceleration zone and then rent out all that capacity to US Big Tech like Microsoft, Meta, or Oracle, as is often the case today. We also shouldn’t expect co-location firms to magically align their interests with the European public. A leading US co-location firm, Equinix, has already refused to reserve capacity for European companies and public bodies, simply saying they would not change their business model because “[t]he IT world is not like that”. Even worse, the commission’s safeguards focus on anti-competitive behaviours within one specific data centre acceleration zone. This means an individual project in one EU state is not considered in connection to a wider network of its projects in other EU countries, overlooking that it is the combined network of data centres which make up the compute advantage of Big Tech Without strong safeguards that tackle this market reality, CADA will fall flat on its promise to deliver autonomy and resilience. Von der Leyen’s data centre dream is at risk of doing exactly the opposite of its intention: making it easier for Big Tech to build and occupy data centre capacity in the EU, further entrenching their grip on the European market. A future that benefits Europeans is one that places people at the centre of any plan. Yet CADA, alongside the Environmental Omnibus, will limit communities’ ability to challenge data centre projects. With legal challenges against data centres in Spain, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands, von der Leyen is shooting herself in the foot by going against the groundswell of voter opposition for mass data centre build out. Instead of rushing into the corporate-narrated AI race, the EU must chart another path. It is now up to MEPs to fix CADA. They must start by scrapping the proposals for data centre acceleration zones and working towards a temporary ban on all data centres owned by, developed for, or primarily serving Big Tech. True European sovereignty requires transparency, public scrutiny, and democratic oversight. Not reckless, brute speed that hands over our critical digital infrastructure to Silicon Valley.