european economics at infra/CAPITAL 2026
The european economics team attended the infra/CAPITAL 2026 summit in Paris.
Co-organised by Structure Research and The Tech Capital, the event brought together over two days senior executives, investors, operators and public decision-makers from the European ecosystem of data centres, cloud and artificial intelligence to discuss key challenges related to financing, deployment and scaling of strategic digital infrastructure in Europe.
The 2026 edition highlighted a central point: the dynamics of AI are no longer solely about access to capital, but about the actual capacity to execute projects. Discussions notably focused on access to energy, grid connection, permitting timelines, the supply chain and the practical conditions for delivering large-scale projects.
A strong track record in IPCEIs and State aid
Since 2009, european economics has been supporting strategic industrial projects across Europe.
At infra/CAPITAL 2026, we highlighted several key figures:
- €43 billion in public funding secured and more than 250 projects supported
- over 140 projects supported under IPCEIs
- more than €16 billion in State aid approved by the European Commission
This experience enables us to operate across the entire project value chain, from structuring through to the effective securing of public funding.
Discussions focused on the execution of AI projects
A key takeaway from the summit relates to the evolution of the sector’s discussions.
In Paris, debates confirmed that the issue is no longer whether capital is available. The question now is: in which markets, under what conditions, and within what timelines can projects actually be developed and delivered?
Discussions also highlighted several structural trends:
- the increasingly decisive role of access to power capacity in determining project location
- the emergence of new demand segments, alongside hyperscalers, including AI-native players and neocloud providers
- the need to align private financing, industrial strategy and public instruments to support more dense, specialised and capital-intensive infrastructure
A contribution on public funding for AI infrastructure
During our session Powering Europe’s AI Future: Public Funding for Strategic AI Projects and Digital Infrastructure, Hedi Bairam highlighted a key point: not all AI projects share the same funding profile. Application-driven use cases, with faster returns, can be financed by the private market. By contrast, sovereign infrastructure, AI gigafactories, European cloud-edge, industrial AI models — requires massive investment and remains difficult to finance without public support.
The keynote also emphasised the complementarity of European funding instruments. InvestAI, EuroHPC, Horizon Europe and IPCEIs cover different layers of the value chain, from compute to industrial deployment. The challenge is to combine these instruments effectively to enable large-scale strategic projects.
Finally, a clear operational takeaway emerged: the ability to secure funding depends primarily on project structuring. Demonstrating the funding gap, aligning public and private financing, and ensuring industrial coherence are critical to unlock significant public support.
An acceleration phase under constraints
infra/CAPITAL 2026 confirms an important shift: the issue is no longer only the growth in AI demand, but the ability to make projects truly executable and financeable. In Europe, capital is available, but energy, grid connection, permitting and the supply chain are becoming decisive factors in project prioritisation.
In this context, the coming months will be critical for project sponsors seeking to position themselves in strategic digital infrastructure, whether in R&D, first industrial deployment or large-scale infrastructure.
Would you like to assess the public funding potential of your project in data centres, cloud, edge or artificial intelligence?
Contact us to arrange a meeting.
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