ctg. morning brief, 4 sep 2026
On 4 Sep 2026, Energa Obrót (Orlen), Centralna Grupa Energetyczna, and the city of Konin signed a LoI for Data Centre Konin, pitched as Poland's largest AI facility. Nearly €3bn on municipal land. Construction from early 2027. First phase ~1 TWh / year, framed as ~100 MW IT. Four halls, waste heat into local heating, twelve underground fuel tanks for backup. Energa as preferred energy partner and balancer.
Why it matters: CEE just put a real power LoI under an AI campus. The binding constraint in Europe is the wire, not the press release. Poland is building where the queue is shorter.
Source: https://ceenergynews.com/electricity/energa-obrot-to-power-major-ai-data-dentre-in-konin/
Saxony-Anhalt told Politico it signed LoIs with two investors for the former Intel Magdeburg site. One is Dresden memory startup FMC; the other is not a semiconductor maker. FMC financing still open. State says 380 kV power and an Elbe waterworks are secured from 2028; winner could start in two to three years. Intel walked from a €30bn plan in July 2025.
Why it matters: Europe's biggest chip bet collapsed. The plot is still there. A memory startup and a non-semi bidder is not a foundry reboot yet, but it is the first concrete fight for the land.
Source: https://regionalheute.de/sachsen-anhalt-verhandelt-ueber-intel-flaeche-mit-zwei-investoren-1788278462/
NRW.BANK took its first direct defence-tech stake: €500k into Hürth startup SkyLance (convertible converted + fresh cash), part of a >€1m round with IACD investors. Product: DroneHammer, a laser-guided interceptor. Company claims: ~700 g, >600 km/h, under €3,000 a shot. Testing with the Bundeswehr; still pre-industrial.
Why it matters: A landesbank just crossed the taboo line on defence equity. The economics of cheap drones need cheap intercepts. Numbers are theirs.
Source: https://www.startbase.com/news/nrw-bank-investiert-erstmals-in-defence-tech-und-beteiligt-sich-an-skylance/
EIC STEP scale up defence is open through 28 oct 2026: first time an EU funding programme puts direct equity into defence companies. €10-30m per firm from a €100m 2026 budget, meant to sit inside €50-150m+ rounds with a single qualified investor pre-committed for ≥20%. Drones, counter-drone, air and missile defence among targets. Ukraine-eligible.
Why it matters: Grants do not put balance sheet under a scaleup. Brussels just did. The catch is you already need a serious private cheque.
Source: https://eic.ec.europa.eu/eic-funding-opportunities/eic-step-scale-defence_en
CBRE via TNW: Europe on track for ~13 GW data-centre capacity by end-2026 (+~20% yoy). Of ~700 MW added in Q2, only 37% landed in Frankfurt/London/Amsterdam/Paris/Dublin. Greenfield jumps from 8% to 39% of the 2026-28 pipeline. AI neocloud signings 420 MW in Q2 vs 89 MW a year earlier, tilted Nordics. European industrial power still ~2x US (IEA 2025).
Why it matters: The map of European compute is rewriting itself around the grid queue. Konin and the Nordics are the same story with different accents.
Source: https://thenextweb.com/news/europe-data-centres-leaving-flap-d-grid-queues-land