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Technology and services

Supporting the buildout of an AI-sovereign Europe

Macquarie provided a financing facility to fund the fit out of a flagship AI data centre in Germany, supporting European ambitions for greater AI sovereignty

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SectorTechnology and services
Sub sectorArtificial Intelligence (AI)
LocationGermany

Opportunity

Holding less than 5 per cent of the world’s AI computing power, the EU faces a critical need to develop sovereign, industrial-grade AI infrastructure.1

Closing the gap with market leaders like the US and China requires investment in infrastructure that combines Europe’s world-class manufacturing base with secure, high-performance computing (HPC).

Polarise is one of the few end-to-end providers of AI-ready data centres, developing and operating highly efficient AI Factories – ecosystems that foster innovation, collaboration and development in the field of artificial intelligence2 – in Germany and across Europe. It is playing a key role in delivering HPC infrastructure for an industrial AI cloud platform, with its AI Factory in Munich serving as the cornerstone to support European businesses with cutting-edge AI and HPC.

This Munich facility will be the first industrial AI Factory for European enterprises, engineered to scale power, cooling, and security to handle intensive AI workloads across both Germany and the continent.

Approach

To meet an ambitious launch timeline, Polarise required tailored financing with rapid execution to secure vendor commitments and initiate construction.

Drawing on a strong track record of financing AI and HPC projects across EMEA and the Americas, Macquarie’s Specialised and Asset Finance business structured and closed a senior debt facility in a matter of weeks. 

The financing supports the fit out of the Munich AI Factory and the further expansion of AI data centre capacity across Germany and Europe, with GPU procurement and deployment for industrial use cases planned for later stages.

Macquarie’s sector expertise, speed and flexible structuring shortened deployment timelines, enabling Polarise to bring industrial-grade AI infrastructure online at speed and capture the rising demand from European enterprises.

Outcome

European AI Factories provide HPC designed for industrial use cases, helping to improve productivity and competitiveness.

Locally hosted compute supports EU data protection and security requirements without compromising performance, strengthening data sovereignty and compliance. 

The project expands sovereign AI capacity, narrows the infrastructure gap with global peers, and establishes a reliable model for financing specialised AI infrastructure. This in turn can unlock further private investment across compute, networking and semiconductor supply chains while reinforcing Europe’s strategic autonomy.

First

industrial-scale AI Factory for European enterprises

Up to €117 million

of potential financing 

3 weeks

from term sheet to deploying capital

  1. ‘The US hosts the majority of GPU cluster performance, followed by China’, Epoch AI, 5 June 2025, https://epoch.ai/.
  2. 'AI Factories’, The European Commission, https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/ (Accessed 15 January 2026).

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