INSIGHT: Global Gateway – Computing Power for Africa!

Artificial intelligence carries the risk of widening the gap between rich and poor countries. The EU therefore needs to realign its Africa policy and its Global Gateway infrastructure initiative.

By Daniel Schönwitz

Just an efficiency booster? Studies provide compelling evidence that artificial intelligence offers enormous economic potential far beyond cost reductions. “AI accelerates research and development and enables new products and business models,” says Michael Hüther, Director of the German Economic Institute.  The technology therefore offers the opportunity for additional value creation of up to 440 billion euros over the next eight years—in Germany alone.

In many developing countries, however, the situation is different. They face far greater difficulties in building a robust AI infrastructure: They lack power grids, access to cutting-edge technology, and capital. What is progressing slowly in Europe is not advancing at all in many places.

This carries the risk that the gap between rich and poor countries will widen in the coming years. If companies in the Global South do not gain sufficient access to computing power, their innovative capacity and competitiveness will dwindle. Economists are already warning that AI could further cement the dominance of wealthy countries in key industries.

Preventing an AI Divide – and “Opening New Paths to Progress”

This is a dangerous scenario – also from a European perspective. Job losses in developing countries fuel migration, increase the risk of geopolitical conflicts, and can bring autocrats to power who seek to align themselves with China and Russia.

That is why it is in our very best interest to integrate developing and emerging economies into the global AI infrastructure and support the construction of data centers. AI must “open new paths to progress for the Global South,” demanded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at this year’s “AI Impact Summit” in New Delhi.

The good news is: The EU’s Global Gateway infrastructure program is ideally suited to catalyze key investments and prevent an AI divide. This is because funding digital infrastructure is one of the program’s explicit priorities – as are investments in power grids, whose expansion is urgently needed to supply energy-hungry data centers.

It is also encouraging that, five years after its launch and a tough start-up phase, the Global Gateway initiative has reached full speed: EU Commissioner Jozef Sikela is increasingly able to commit funding and position Europe as an alternative to China – especially in Africa, where the People’s Republic has recently significantly reduced its involvement.

Promoting investment – and enabling access to EU infrastructure

Now, however, it is time to take the next step and place the development of AI infrastructure more firmly at the center of the Global Gateway. It’s true that the EU is already funding a number of projects designed to improve “data connectivity and access to computing power” – such as cloud storage, fiber-optic cables, and undersea cables.

However, this does not adequately reflect the impact of the AI revolution. The Global Gateway will remain piecemeal and fail to achieve its ambitious goals if artificial intelligence remains just one topic among many. In my view, the EU should therefore launch a special program within the Global Gateway framework and specifically mobilize private capital for data centers.

I also advocate opening up European AI infrastructure to African countries. A blueprint for this already exists: In October, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced plans to open “AI Factories Antennas” in third countries such as Serbia, so that local economies can access supercomputers and AI factories in the EU.

Extending such access to African partners would be technically feasible, politically wise, and economically attractive. For if African entrepreneurs widely embrace AI opportunities, value creation will increase there as well—and with it, the potential for profitable business for European companies.

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