TopTier – October 2025
Written By
Partner
France
As the partner in charge of our Finance group in France and co-managing partner of our Casablanca office, I advise investment funds, banks, sponsors and public entities on the structuring, award and financing of projects in the energy, infrastructure and automotive sectors in Europe and Africa.
We are delighted to share the Octobers edition of TopTier. The newsletter will focus on hot topics and legal development impacting on various aspects of the data centre industry.
This issue has been edited by Boris Martor with contributions from the Data Centre's team.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in these articles, or visit our webpage for more information about Bird & Bird’s International Data Centre Group.
Click on the links below to jump to the respective article:
Contents
- Overview of the French market and French legal framework applicable to Data Centres – Editor's Article
- Powering AI data centres – challenges and opportunities
- Germany: Data center & Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernisation
- Update on German customer installations: The Federal Court of Justice's reasons for its decision
- New German government & data centre
- UK Cybersecurity Reform: Planned changes in the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill
- KSA: Public consultation on Draft “AI Hub” Law
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Overview of the French market and French legal framework applicable to Data Centres – Editor's Article
Last February 2025, investment announcements poured in at the AI Summit in Paris. 109 billion euros were to be allocated to the AI Action Plan, France's AI development strategy. Most of the funds will be dedicated for data centre projects, necessary to train and operate AI, whose computing chips cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Among the investors, the United Arab Emirates has pledged between €30 and 50 billion for the construction of Europe's largest data centre, with a capacity of up to one gigawatt.
READ THE FULL STORYFor more information, please contact Boris Martor.
Powering AI data centres – challenges and opportunities
As the growth of AI continues to bolster demand for data centres, a key question is where the electricity to power them will come from. The IEA’s recent Energy and AI Report projects that electricity demand from data centres worldwide could more than double by 2030 to around 945 TWh.
AI data centre developers and operators need to carefully consider their energy sourcing, and energy generators and suppliers will need to be ready to offer not only more energy, but the right sort of energy too.
For more information, please contact Dr.Matthias Lang.
Germany: Data center & Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernisation
It has now been around 100 days since the new German government took office. For the data center industry, this means the first 100 days of the new Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernization - BMDS, headed by Federal Digital Minister Dr. Karsten Wildberger.
What has happened since then? In May 2025, the Federal Minister for Digital Affairs gave his first speech in the Bundestag and a keynote address at re:publica: The digital future needs an adequate digital infrastructure with data centers, which needs to be promoted.
Update on German customer installations: The Federal Court of Justice's reasons for its decision
On 13 May 2025, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that the previous understanding of customer installations (also known as “self-consumption facilities”) was not compatible with European law (EnVR 83/20). Rather, any distribution system used to distribute electricity intended for sale to wholesalers or end customers is a distribution network. As such, it must be subject to regulation (for more details, see here and the underlying ruling of the European Court of Justice here). The Federal Court of Justice has now published its reasons for the decision.
READ THE FULL STORY
For more information, please contact Dr.Matthias Lang and Anja Holtermann, LL.M.
New German government & Data Centre
On 6 May 2025, the German Bundestag elected Friedrich Merz as the new Federal Chancellor with the votes of the CDU/CSU and SPD parties - also to implement government projects in the data centre industry.
Friedrich Merz is a lawyer and was a long-standing partner in an international US law firm. Friedrich Merz's election is based on the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD parties. The coalition agreement is not a legally binding contract, but rather a memorandum of understanding that describes the basis for cooperation and the political agenda for this legislative period.
UK Cybersecurity Reform: Planned changes in the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill
The UK government has published greater detail on their ambitions for a forthcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill (“Bill”) expected this year. The Bill is expected to update the UK’s core cybersecurity legislation set out in the NIS Regulations 2018 (“NIS”).
The Bill and its updates to NIS are part of a broader strategy to update the UK’s cybersecurity regime in line with international standards, notably the EU's NIS2 Directive, and to raise cybersecurity preparedness in the UK economy.
KSA: Public consultation on Draft “AI Hub” Law
CST, Saudi Arabia’s Communications, Space & Technology Commission, has initiated a public consultation on a new “Global AI Hub Law”. While “AI” itself is only specifically mentioned in the title, the term “advanced technologies” is used in connection with data centre operations, cross-border data handling and other digital services, providing broad application, providing a more accurate context to the focus of the draft law.
