The European Commission's draft Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), published March 4, 2026, has drawn sharp criticism for what it leaves out. Article 24.1 of the 96-page document explicitly excludes digital technologies, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and semiconductors from the legislation's list of "strategic" sectors earmarked for European production support. The IAA instead directs its "Made in Europe" manufacturing push toward net-zero technologies, nuclear fuel cycle technologies, and electric vehicles — a policy orientation that prioritizes decarbonization over digital competitiveness. The exclusion sits awkwardly inside a document whose own explanatory memorandum pledges to transition Europe to a "clean and digital economy."
That contradiction runs straight into prior EU technology commitments. The European Chips Act allocated €43 billion toward raising the EU's semiconductor manufacturing share from roughly 9% of global production to 20% by 2030 — a target now lacking the industrial policy infrastructure that strategic-sector designation would provide. The EU AI Continent Action Plan had similarly positioned Europe as a serious AI contender, though Nokia had already questioned publicly whether the bloc could deliver on that ambition. The EU AI Act, once the centerpiece of Europe's technology governance, has been softened under industry pressure. Robotics and biotechnology — sectors where European firms ABB and Kuka hold strong global positions — were also <a href="/news/2026-03-15-eu-removes-ai-chips-and-quantum-computing-from-industrial-accelerator-act">cut from the IAA's strategic scope</a>, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
The timing compounded the political awkwardness. Just days before the draft's release, Mobile World Congress 2026 featured Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges and other telecom executives publicly criticizing European regulators for insufficient support for AI, cloud, and GPU investment. EU Executive Vice President Stéphane Séjourné defended the IAA as a mechanism to direct taxpayer money toward European production and reduce third-country dependencies. Critics pushed back hard: the policy omits precisely the sectors where European dependency on non-EU suppliers is most acute — chips from Taiwan and South Korea, cloud from US hyperscalers, AI infrastructure from wherever it can be procured. The draft also dropped earlier proposals to exclude non-EU suppliers from government contracts in strategic sectors, further softening the law's original protectionist intent.
For those tracking AI and agent infrastructure, the IAA's exclusions have concrete implications. Without strategic-sector designation, European AI infrastructure — chip supply chains, <a href="/news/2026-03-14-datacenters-become-warfare-targets-as-iran-strikes-aws-facilities-in-gulf-states">data center buildout</a>, GPU procurement — will not qualify for the accelerated permitting mechanisms and single-market preferences the law grants to favored industries. The Commission has scheduled further parliamentary review for Q2 2026, giving member states a window to push AI and semiconductors back onto the strategic list. The current draft makes Brussels's industrial priorities clear: green before digital, and manufacturing before compute.