AI BUDGET MONITOR · FEDERAL
What the German federal government budgets for AI—and what is demonstrably spent.
The monitor reads official budget titles, supplementary budgets and annual accounts. The large number is the gross value of expenditure lines whose official purpose explicitly names AI—not an estimated AI-only share.
- Official BMF documents
- Exact unit conversion
- No generator
- Money types kept separate
SERIES 2014–2026
Explicit AI references in the federal budget
The series counts only expenditure lines with an exact AI marker. Zero means no such line was found in that machine-readable source release—not that no AI expenditure existed.
THE EVIDENCE CHAIN
A euro does not mean the same thing everywhere
Appropriation, grant, contract value, actual expenditure and system evidence remain separate lanes.
- 01Appropriation€304.5M
- 02Grant awardNot linked publicly
- 03Contract valueNot linked publicly
- 04Actual expenditureNot fully published
- 05System evidenceNot linked publicly
A connector appears only when an exact official identifier proves the relationship. These amounts are never added.
LARGEST POSITIONS
Official title lines in the selected year
Sorted by the published appropriation. This is not a ranking of impact or quality.
Sec. 30 · Ch. 3004 · Tit. 68321
€126.9M→Innovative Softwaresysteme; Künstliche Intelligenz
Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt
Sec. 24 · Ch. 2401 · Tit. 68612
€89.0M→Souveräne Dateninfrastruktur und Künstliche Intelligenz
Bundesministerium für Digitales und Staatsmodernisierung
Sec. 30 · Ch. 3004 · Tit. 68591
€49.3M→KI-Kompetenzzentren - Betrieb
Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt
Sec. 24 · Ch. 2401 · Tit. 68613
€26.0M→Innovative Anwendungen von Künstlicher Intelligenz
Bundesministerium für Digitales und Staatsmodernisierung
Sec. 30 · Ch. 3004 · Tit. 89421
€5.5M→IT-Infrastruktur im Bereich Künstliche Intelligenz
Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt
Sec. 16 · Ch. 1601 · Tit. 68602
€4.0M→Förderung der künstlichen Intelligenz
Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Klimaschutz, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit
Clearly explained
Does the headline show all German AI expenditure?
No. It is the gross value of federal expenditure lines whose official purpose explicitly names AI. Hidden AI shares in broader digital titles are not estimated.
Why are title-group amounts excluded?
A generic salary, rent or equipment line inside an AI-labelled group cannot automatically be assigned to AI alone. It remains visible as context but stays outside the headline.
Are plan and actual expenditure added together?
Never. Appropriations authorise expenditure; annual accounts report actual expenditure. They remain separate values and are compared only when the official account publishes both for the same title.
How are AI references detected?
A deterministic, versioned marker set searches the amount-bearing title and its title group for explicit terms such as artificial intelligence, Künstliche Intelligenz, standalone KI and machine learning. No generative model is used.
Why does the structured series begin in 2014?
The official download portal provides consistent title-level plan XML from 2014 and annual account XML from 2015. Older documents exist, but this monitor does not silently OCR them into the structured series.
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