Europe hails AI gigafactory plan, but industry fears deeper US tech reliance

Aiming to catch up with the United States and China, the European Union has opened bidding for up to seven AI gigafactories, putting up €10 billion (US$11.52 billion) in public money and counting on private investors for €20 billion more. Industry insiders welcomed the tender – modest by AI industry standards and more than a year in the making – as a necessary first step, but warned that the plan as drafted risked benefiting the very American tech giants Europe wanted to rival and that Brussels...