February 15, 2026

Top news (3)

1. Canada–Germany move to build “secure compute” capacity: Canada and Germany sign AI declaration, launch Sovereign Alliance. The partnership is positioned around expanding secure compute infrastructure, accelerating AI R&D/commercialization, and strengthening talent development.

2. Smart-city digital infrastructure budgets are being framed in clear tiers (pilot to scaled rollouts): Smart City Platform Costs: Pilots, Scale, and Long-term Budgets outlines pilots at $100k–$500k and multi-department programs at $1M–$10M, with lifecycle budgeting emphasis.

3. Annual O&M expectations are being explicitly benchmarked for smart-city deployments: Practical cost breakdown for developing focused smart city solutions flags ongoing maintenance at ~10–20% per year, reinforcing the importance of long-term operating budgets alongside initial capex.

Policy, regulation, and public-sector signals

Canada / Germany

• At the Munich Security Conference (Feb 14, 2026), Canada and Germany signed a Joint Declaration of Intent on Artificial Intelligence and launched the Sovereign Technology Alliance.
• Stated focus areas:
  • Expanding secure compute infrastructure
  • Accelerating AI research and commercialization
  • Strengthening talent development
• The initiative builds on the Canada–Germany Digital Alliance announced Dec 8, 2025 (referenced in the same story).

Why it matters for infrastructure investors: The declaration explicitly links national security and industrial policy objectives to “secure compute infrastructure,” a framing that can influence future procurement, partnership structures, and location choices for compute-heavy facilities.

Key deals & projects (data centres / digital infrastructure)

Germany (Frankfurt)

• Market landscape / partner ecosystem: Frankfurt’s leading AI agencies and data infrastructure partners profiles consultancies and an infrastructure provider in Frankfurt (including AI Superior, Innowise, T‑Systems, and EDGECOM) and highlights:
  • Deployment in regulated environments
  • Integration with legacy systems
  • Reference to modular data centres (as part of the services/infrastructure ecosystem described)

Note: No discrete financing rounds, site acquisitions, MW announcements, or construction timelines are provided in the stories.

Power, grid, and interconnection highlights

• No grid connection awards, PPA announcements, substation builds, or interconnection queue updates are included in today’s stories.

Cost, demand, and unit-economics signals (smart city / edge-adjacent)

Global

• Platform cost tiers (planning and budgeting): Smart City Platform Costs: Pilots, Scale, and Long-term Budgets
  • Pilots: $100k–$500k
  • Multi-department scale: $1M–$10M
  • Cost categories highlighted include connectivity, devices, data platforms, integration, O&M, and security.
• Project sizing in EUR and lifecycle O&M: Practical cost breakdown for developing focused smart city solutions
  • Small pilots: from €30,000
  • Large multi-domain initiatives: >€1,000,000
  • Core components include sensors, connectivity, platforms, citizen tools, integration.
  • Ongoing maintenance: ~10–20% annually.

Investor read-through: These ranges provide a rough guide to the “digital layer” budgets that can sit upstream of edge connectivity and compute needs, with O&M materially affecting total lifecycle economics.

Two-line close

Public-sector coordination around trusted AI and compute is becoming more explicit, which can shape how and where capacity gets built.

Separately, smart-city programs continue to emphasize pilot-led scaling and long-term operating budgets, clarifying the demand-side spend profile for digital infrastructure layers.