Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany is planning a €24 million AI datacenter facility expected to open in 2030.

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has announced plans to construct an AI data center at its Campus North facility in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. The project will cost an estimated €24 million ($27.2 million) and is designed to serve other higher education institutions, government organizations, and researchers across the region.

Located adjacent to a combined heat and power plant on KIT's campus, the facility will incorporate a waste heat recovery system that redirects heat from the data center's servers into the district heating network—a measure that will heat campus buildings while optimizing operations according to sustainability criteria. Construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2029, with the site opening in 2030.

The data center will launch with an initial power consumption of 2 megawatts and will be built in phases, with the capacity to scale to 10 megawatts if demand warrants. Dr. Martin Nußbaumer, director of KIT's Scientific Computing Center, outlined the operational philosophy: "Our aim is to build a system that can 'breathe' with demand. During the day, it provides more capacity for AI applications when demand for them is particularly high. At night, it uses the same infrastructure for resource-intensive simulations, for example in climate research. This helps us prevent idle capacity while also strengthening digital sovereignty through a well-developed set of AI services that make smart use of existing resources."

Professor Kora Kristof, KIT's vice-president for digitalization and sustainability, added: "With the new data center, we're laying the foundation for tomorrow's research and AI applications. At the same time, we use the waste heat generated to heat buildings on campus and optimize the data center's operations in line with sustainability criteria. This strengthens our digital infrastructure and drives KIT's decarbonization and other sustainability efforts forward."

The project reflects a broader regional trend. Baden-Württemberg currently hosts 32 data centers. In December 2025, the University of Stuttgart began constructing its own supercomputer facility on campus, followed in August 2026 by a 78-kilowatt facility at Caritas Hospital, a medical training center in Bad Mergentheim.