Lidl owner and Bull plan European AI infrastructure independent of US clouds

The Schwarz Group, which owns Lidl and Kaufland, is moving deeper into artificial intelligence. Its technology arm, Schwarz Digits, signed a memorandum of cooperation with French supercomputer maker Bull on 3 November 2026. According to the website Spider's Web, this is only a preliminary agreement for now.

What the project involves

The partners want to build infrastructure on which European companies and institutions can run AI applications without using American clouds. Schwarz Digits will contribute its STACKIT platform, which offers data storage and computing power. Bull will provide its experience in designing supercomputers and manufacturing hardware. The companies also plan to jointly develop servers for future data centres.

This is not an announcement of a new chatbot to compete with OpenAI or Google. It concerns the back end: the computers, software and data centres on which AI models can be trained and run. The service could be offered to banks, hospitals, public offices and businesses that don't want to maintain their own server rooms.

Technical details

STACKIT is expected to offer BullSequana AI tools for building and running applications. SAP integrations, larger supercomputer projects and even quantum technologies are also being considered. In October, Bull expanded production capacity at its factory in Angers, which is due to supply hardware for the venture. Bull plans to use direct liquid cooling and Open Compute Project open standards. No budget or timetable for the investment has been disclosed.

Data sovereignty

The partners say data, infrastructure and day-to-day operations will remain under European jurisdiction and control. Spider's Web points out, however, that this does not mean full technological independence. Servers in Europe may still use processors designed outside the continent, and customers' real freedom will also depend on contracts and the ability to switch provider.

The group's other investments

The Schwarz Group is also developing cloud and cybersecurity businesses. In late October 2026, details were revealed of a funding round for Canadian company Cohere, which builds language models for businesses. The round, led by the Schwarz Group, is meant to reach CAD 7 billion in the end, or about USD 4.9 billion. The group had earlier pledged €500 million, so it is not putting up the whole sum itself.