Deutsche Telekom $DTE (+0,68%) and the leading AI chip manufacturer Nvidia are $NVDA (+2,07%) are investing billions in Munich. What is behind the plans for the huge AI data center in the English Garden?

Deutsche Telekom wants to enter into the construction and operation of data centers for artificial intelligence (AI) on a grand scale. Group CEO Timotheus Höttges announced the launch of a joint project with the US chip company Nvidia in Munich last November.

Three months later, the time has come. Together with Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil (SPD) and Bavaria's Minister President Markus Söder (CSU), the Deutsche Telekom CEO will open the new AI data center.

》How much money is Deutsche Telekom investing in the project?

The cloud data center for artificial intelligence requires an investment of around one billion euros. This will involve the purchase of 10,000 graphics processors from Nvidia.

This puts Deutsche Telekom in the top league of data centers in Germany.

For comparison: Germany's largest supercomputer, Jupiter, which is located at the research center in Jülich, has 24,000 graphics processors.

》Why did only three months pass before the launch?

Telekom is not building on a greenfield site, but is moving into a completely renovated existing data center in Munich, which was previously operated by Hypovereinsbank.

Little can be seen from the outside, as the data center extends over six underground floors. The building is part of the Tucherpark office quarter, which was built in the 1960s directly on the edge of the English Garden.

》What happens to the heat《

It's true: AI chips, especially Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs, get extremely hot. Telekom will use the cold water from the adjacent ice stream for cooling.

The waste heat generated in the data center will not simply be directed into the stream water. There are plans to feed this energy into the local district heating network to heat the surrounding neighborhood in Tucherpark.

》Why Telekom chose the Munich site《

Munich was chosen because it has a high density of potential industrial customers. Telekom customers and partners such as Airbus $AIR (-0,32%)BMW $BMW (-0,86%)the AI company Perplexity and Siemens $SIE (+0,98%)as well as a number of robotics start-ups such as Agile Robots require low data runtimes (latency) for their applications. By placing the computers in the middle of the city - and not in a remote business park - Telekom can meet the companies' requirements.

》Isn't the competition with large US providers like a battle between David and Goliath?

At first glance, the market position of US giants such as AWS (Amazon) $AMZN (-0,09%), Azure (Microsoft) $MSFT (-0,42%) or Google Cloud $GOOGL (-3,47%) overwhelming.

The large US companies invest many times more each year than Deutsche Telekom can afford.

Nevertheless, Deutsche Telekom still has a chance in the competition and this is due to the fact that the Bonn-based company has chosen a lucrative niche in the cloud business, namely the provision of high-security data centers close to industrial companies.

》Does Telekom benefit from Germany as a business location?

Yes and no. On the one hand, Telekom has to live with higher costs in Germany - especially for the energy supply. On the other hand, it can turn the keyword "data sovereignty" into a business model.

Many German companies are reluctant to store their sensitive data in the clouds of US providers.

Deutsche Telekom offers a "sovereign cloud" in which the data remains physically in Germany and is subject to European and German law. US providers, on the other hand, have the option of access by US authorities, at least in theory, due to laws such as the US Cloud Act.

Viasat $VSAT (-0,59%)a global leader in satellite communications, announced the addition of Serbia to its award-winning European Aviation Network (EAN).

This network expansion, realized in cooperation with Deutsche Telekom $DTE (+0,68%) improves in-flight connectivity (IFC) for airlines and passengers flying through Serbian airspace on EAN-equipped aircraft.

The expanded coverage is made possible by the commissioning of new ground stations that will improve connectivity services on flights across the region, including flights to and from the Balkans, as well as from Germany and Western Europe to Greece and other routes.

IFC offerings across Europe continue to evolve, and while airlines are increasingly turning to "freemium" and "full and free" offerings, EAN's scalability continues to provide a superior passenger experience that supports a variety of business models and offers maximum flexibility to airlines.

EAN is the world's first and only connectivity solution to integrate S-band satellite coverage with a complementary Ground Component (CGC) network. EAN, part of Viasat's global aviation portfolio, is specifically designed to address the challenges of congested European airspace and frequent flight maneuvers, providing a seamless, low-latency broadband experience that meets expectations on the ground.

Deutsche Telekom is significantly expanding its T Cloud Private to counter the market dominance of the major US cloud providers. This is intended to strengthen Europe's digital sovereignty.

The US hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) $AMZN (-0,09%)Microsoft Azure $MSFT (-0,42%) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) $GOOGL (-3,47%) dominate the cloud market for companies in Europe. However, Europe wants to become more independent of the tech giants from overseas and is focusing on greater digital sovereignty.

Deutsche Telekom $DTE (+0,68%) has now announced that it will be expanding its T Cloud Private this year.

The project aims to significantly reduce the feature gap with US providers for central core features by the end of 2026 and provide a scalable infrastructure and specialized AI services at a competitive level.

"We are ending the era of either-or decisions," says Ferri Abolhassan, CEO of T-Systems and member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom AG. "Until now, companies have had to choose between maximum functionality from overseas or European sovereignty. With T Cloud Public, we now deliver the best of both worlds. We are not only building a sovereign cloud, but also the digital foundation for a competitive, free Europe."

The T Cloud Public can be seamlessly combined with the Industrial AI Cloud and is designed to enable accelerated AI applications using the latest generation of GPUs.

It offers companies a ready-to-use toolkit for their IT infrastructures: computing power, storage, managed databases and preconfigured developer tools are available at the click of a mouse.

A key advantage is direct access to scarce GPU resources via the seamlessly combinable Industrial AI Cloud. This allows computationally intensive AI applications to be implemented without having to operate their own server hardware. The modular architecture allows users to select exactly the services they need, from basic network infrastructure to complete AI pipelines.

In line with the security by design approach, the platform is certified according to standards such as C5 and is based on a modern zero-trust architecture. Deutsche Telekom enables fully EU-compliant data processing in European data centers that are strictly protected against access from third countries.

This promise goes far beyond pure software security:

Customers thus receive comprehensive legal and operational sovereignty in accordance with European law and European standards.

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Akamai $AKAM (+0,36%) announced that Deutsche Telekom Security $DTE (+0,68%)a member of the Akamai Partner Connect program, is leveraging Akamai's Security Certified Service Provider initiative to provide cybersecurity services to its customers in key industries such as financial services, insurance, critical infrastructure and the public sector.

Using Akamai's Security Certified Service capabilities, Deutsche Telekom Security now offers proactive Day 2 operational services that provide customers with continuous end-to-end management across the entire API security lifecycle.

These services include comprehensive operational and management capabilities such as hybrid deployments, quarterly business reviews, and API audits and compliance. They also include professional security incident management and proactive API security testing.

In addition, Deutsche Telekom Security extends its support to Akamai Guardicore Segmentation environments, offering specialized services such as segmentation management, security incident management, and audits and compliance. All of these services can be run in a sovereign cloud.

"We are achieving great results with Akamai's advanced Security Certified Service Provider programs," said Christian Günther, Head of Sales Major Accounts at Deutsche Telekom Security. "As an early adopter, we offer our customers even better API security and support for software-defined segmentation. This enables them to remain secure and compliant in a dynamic cybersecurity landscape that is becoming increasingly complex."

The enhancements to Akamai's Security Certified Service Provider programs are in response to the growing need for robust API security and micro-segmentation solutions, particularly in industries that are heavily impacted by cyberthreats.

A 2025 State of the Internet (SOTI) report from Akamai found that the number of recorded API attacks increased to 150 billion between January 2023 and December 2024. The attacks can lead to significant financial losses, data breaches and reputational damage, highlighting the importance of securing APIs and implementing micro-segmentation strategies.

Under the heading of "defense business", the management of Deutsche Telekom is $DTE (+0,68%) is considering new roles and offerings that go beyond traditional telecoms products.

This emerges from statements made by Telekom to "Wirtschaftswoche".

With regard to the new initiative, it states that Deutsche Telekom sees itself as a "digital infrastructure provider" with a responsibility to "contribute to the protection of Germany - especially in times of hybrid threats".

However, there are currently no plans for an independent "defense division" within the Group; instead, the defense industry is to be supported on a project-by-project basis and draw on existing expertise within the Group. The initiative is, however, to be handled by T-Systems.

》Manager with Bundeswehr background heads department with flexible size《

Deutsche Telekom's defense project is to be coordinated internally by a manager with a Bundeswehr background, which emphasizes the strategic focus and proximity to the defense sector: Lieutenant Colonel Philip Stockmann, who was previously responsible for tariff and product integration in the mobile communications business, is heading the initiative. Around 16 employees are initially assigned directly to him, as Wirtschaftswoche writes, citing internal sources. Depending on the task at hand, however, up to one hundred experts from specialist departments will be involved in order to develop project-related solutions. "The number of employees varies depending on the task," Telekom told Wirtschaftswoche, "unfortunately we cannot provide any concrete details."

》Technology offering between cybersecurity and critical infrastructure《

According to Wirtschaftswoche, Deutsche Telekom's planned offering will provide industry-specific solutions for the defense sector - just as the Group's systems business already does for other industries. As a spokesperson told the news site, the company now also sees growth potential here, alongside healthcare and the public sector. This may also be due to the billions in special funds provided by the German government for the expansion of defense capacities.

Observers assume that the Group will not only offer traditional communication services, but also hosting-capable cloud infrastructures, protected communication systems and cyber security solutions, as already offered in other industries and the public sector. Although Telekom has not published any detailed information on this for security and confidentiality reasons, the alignment of T-Systems and Telekom Security points to a comprehensive technological foundation that could also be relevant for highly sensitive data and critical processes.

》Opportunities and criticism - At the crossroads between business and security《

For Telekom, the commitment to the defence sector opens up a potentially new market segment in an environment in which government spending on digitalization and secure communication is increasing. At the same time, this strategic step is not free of political and social debate: the role of a formerly civilian-oriented telecommunications company in the context of military procurement raises questions about ethical responsibility, differentiation from arms companies and the balance between the pursuit of economic profit and state security interests. However, a broad public debate has yet to take place.

T-Systems, the IT subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG $DTE (+0,68%) based in Bonn, is expanding its leadership in the healthcare sector.

Dr. Uwe Heckert took over as the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) in mid-January 2026. The 57-year-old will continue to drive the company's strategic growth in the healthcare market and will report to Gottfried Ludewig, Senior Vice President, who is responsible for the Public Sector and Healthcare divisions at T-Systems and Deutsche Telekom.

Heckert, who holds a doctorate in economics and social sciences, is no stranger to Deutsche Telekom. Uwe Heckert already held various management positions at T-Systems in the area of system integration from 2005 to 2012, most recently as Senior Vice President SAP Solutions.

In 2013, he moved to the IT services company Unisys, initially as Vice President & General Manager EMEA and later as Vice President and General Manager Applications for DACH, America and APAC as well as Managing Director of Unisys Germany.

Most recently, Uwe Heckert worked at Philips since 2021 in a dual role as Chairman of the Management Board for the DACH markets and as Head of the Healthcare Informatics business for Europe.

Until his move to Deutsche Telekom, he was also Chairman of the Health Executive Council of Digitaleurope and a board member of the association at Philips.

Digitaleurope is a leading European trade association which, among other things, develops industrial policy positions on EU legislative projects. Other professional positions include McKinsey & Company and Zimory.

"In Uwe Heckert, we have gained one of the most distinguished minds in the digital health sector, who also brings with him a wealth of international experience. This is a strong signal - for our customers, for the market and for our entire team. In his management positions at Philips and Unisys, Uwe has impressively demonstrated how to successfully shape complex transformations with clarity, expertise and passion," says Gottfried Ludewig.

Uwe Heckert adds: "I want to help drive innovations that improve care and enable a powerful and efficient digital healthcare system in Europe."

Deutsche Telekom is a leading IT player in the field of digital health, according to its own information.

The Healthcare division is one of the Bonn-based Group's strategic business areas and is active throughout Europe for hospitals, doctors' surgeries and pharmacies, among others, providing everything from information systems and electronic patient files to e-prescriptions.

Digital Transformation Capital Partners (DTCP) wants to raise EUR 500 million for Europe's largest VC fund and has already attracted several prominent anchor investors.

The Hamburg-based investment firm Digital Transformation Capital Partners (DTCP) is working on the launch of Europe's largest venture capital fund to date specifically for defense start-ups.

The first well-known investors have already been acquired for the fund, which is targeting a volume of 500 million euros. This is according to a report by Bloomberg.

DTCP, which emerged from Deutsche Telekom around ten years ago, has completed the investments of its anchor investors, Managing Partner Thomas Preuß told Bloomberg News.

He confirmed that DTCP is ultimately aiming for a fund volume of 500 million euros.

Well-known anchor investors

As already announced in August, Porsche Automobil Holding SE $PAH3 (-0,31%)
$P911 (-0,05%) - the holding company of the billionaire Porsche-Piëch family - and Deutsche Telekom $DTE (+0,68%) had held talks about joining the new fund as anchor investors.

Both companies are currently awaiting antitrust approval for stakes of between 25.1 and 49.9 percent in the Luxembourg-registered defense fund. This is according to submissions made to the Federal Cartel Office in December.

If DTCP achieves its goal, the fund would be the largest defense fund for start-ups in Europe.

In light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and US President Donald Trump's wavering support for NATO, European governments have increased their military spending to record levels. Start-up founders and investors are trying to profit from this boom.

Up-and-coming defense companies such as the drone manufacturer Helsing have now reached valuations in the billions.

Many defense funds in launch

Other players such as the French state investment bank Bpifrance, Dutch Keen Venture Partners and Lakestar founder and investor Klaus Hommels are also launching funds for the sector - albeit on a smaller scale, as Bloomberg News reported.

According to Preuß, DTCP plans to make around 30 investments with the new fund, with an average investment volume of around 20 million euros per company.

Investments will primarily be made in European digital defense infrastructure as well as start-ups in areas such as supply chains, connectivity, data centers, materials, robotics, cybersecurity and unmanned systems.

Dual-use strategy dominates

Around a fifth of the investments are to relate exclusively to military technologies, including weapons systems. The remainder will be spent on dual-use technologies with both civilian and military applications.

This represents a noticeable change in sentiment among fund managers and investors, who had long stayed away from investing in military equipment. In August, for example, Porsche dropped its earlier stipulation that investments could only have a dual-use character.