100 million euros. This is the amount that the Spanish Government will allocate to national companies that promote projects aimed at strengthening European digital sovereignty in collaboration with companies from other Member States. This was announced this Tuesday by the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Service, Óscar López, during an informative breakfast with his German counterpart, Karsten Wildberger, held at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026.
The initiative is part of the IPCEI of artificial intelligence, an important project of common European interest on AI designed to support high-impact strategic initiatives that strengthen the technological autonomy of the European Union (EU).
This instrument is led by the German Government and aims to develop a European next-generation artificial intelligence ecosystempromoting public-private collaboration throughout the entire value chain, from research and development to its first industrial deployment.
“Spain is committed to the European race for AI. But we cannot run alone. Europe needs more cooperation and policies aimed at the single market. The Government and Spanish companies want to work side by side with Germany and other Member States to achieve the European digital dreams,” López stressed during the meeting, organized by the EU Champions Initiative.
López has advocated that Germany, the third largest economy in the world, and Spain, the fastest growing within the OECD, join forces in the defense of “a European model that combines innovation, regulation, competitiveness and digital rights.”
Likewise, the person in charge of Digital Transformation insisted that Europe has sufficient “talent, industry, values and ambition” to be at the global forefront of artificial intelligence on the continentalthough he warned that the challenge is to gain industrial size and scale.
The breakfast brought together representatives of some of the main technological and industrial companies from both countries. Telefónica, Indra, Santander, La Caixa, Iberia, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Orange, SAP, Scwarz Grup (Lidl), Mastercard, Volkswagen and Nokia participated, as well as startups from the two countries, including Multiverse Computing, Open Chip, Quilimanjaro, Sherpa AI, Zhappiens AI, OpenNebula, Applus+IDIADA, Shakers, Tucuvi and Quside.
Before the meeting, López highlighted to the media the relevance of the event, which he described as “very important.” In his opinion, in the context of Mobile, “initiatives like this are very important for Europe.”
In parallel to the budget announcement, the minister confirmed that Spain has selected nine candidates to present to the European Commission within the AI IPCEI. Among the chosen projects are those of Idiada, OpenNebula, Indra, MultiverseComputing, Telefónica, Openchip, Ideaded, Horse powertrain and Semidynamics.
These companies will now have to look for partners in other EU countries to scale their project and ensure that it has a European dimension and thus achieve greater competitiveness against the United States and China. With this objective, on March 10 and 11 they will participate in a conference in Berlin aimed at identifying strategic alliances with companies from other Member States.
In this context, López explained that “there are at least nine Spanish companies that aspire to be in it.” “It is obviously about gaining size, gaining scale, about having a true European AI industry”he commented.
Private coalition with global ambition
The EU AI Champions Initiative is a pan-European coalition of companies and private capital created to position Europe as a global leader in AI and strengthen its competitiveness. Although it is not an official entity of the EU, it maintains a close dialogue with its institutions.
Formally presented at last year’s AI Summit in Paris, It brings together more than 110 companies, from startups to industrial conglomerates. It has a private investment group led by General Catalyst that reaches 150,000 million euros for the next five years.