A new substation built near a data centre is not necessarily useful only to that data centre. Electricity networks are shared assets with long lives, changing demand and benefits that can extend beyond the customer that first triggers an upgrade. Assigning the full incremental bill to one project can therefore confuse timing with causation.
Germany is trying to expand AI use, not merely regulate it
The Deutscher Mittelstands-Bund reported in October that 51.2% of surveyed Mittelstand companies use or test AI and called for practical implementation of the EU AI Act that preserves innovation. The EU's 2026 AI Omnibus likewise expanded sandbox access and simplified parts of the rulebook to support competitiveness. Domestic compute capacity can be part of that ecosystem, particularly for firms concerned about latency, resilience and data location.
Investment can move faster than grids
Hyperscale campuses compare jurisdictions. If German connection costs become materially less predictable than those elsewhere, projects can relocate while German companies continue consuming AI through foreign infrastructure. That outcome would reduce local investment without necessarily reducing electricity used by the digital economy globally.
Price system benefits as well as costs
The better tariff is technology-neutral and reflects both burdens and services. Large loads should pay attributable costs, but receive value for flexibility, storage, firm generation or investments that strengthen the network. Germany should avoid turning legitimate ratepayer protection into a sector-specific barrier that predetermines where European compute can be built.
How to use this analysis
Technology investment should be tested against deployed capacity, active customers and recurring revenue. Patents, licences, pilots and funding rounds are intermediate evidence. They can be important without proving that a product has reached commercial scale or that an announced facility is operating at its intended load. Berlin is both a municipality and a city-state; metropolitan claims involving Brandenburg need their own boundary and source.
Source and verification note
The reporting base for this article is DMB: Mittelstand implementation of the AI Act and European Commission: AI Omnibus enters into force. The link is provided to the source page or release so readers can check the reporting period, definitions and later revisions. Figures are not extended beyond the source's geographic or institutional scope, and forecasts remain labelled as expectations until an official release records the outcome.