Europe can lead in AI. Start by deregulating grid buildout and permitting datacenter heat into district heating. AI leadership is not a press release problem. It is an electrons and pipes problem. Models run on power. Cities run on heat. Europe can win where the physics lives. Cut the knots around wires first. Time box approvals for transmission and substations. One stop permits. Performance based incentives for DSOs and TSOs that deliver real capacity, not paperwork. Price location properly so compute gravitates toward strong nodes and renewables. Treat datacenters as flexible citizens, not static hogs. Give dynamic tariffs for demand response, curtailment, and night charging of thermal or battery storage. Tie big deployments to new wind and solar PPAs, co site near grid-strengthened corridors, and require visible uptime budgets that include flex. Turn waste into welfare. Make low temperature heat a public utility input. Standard interconnection codes for heat offtake. Grants for heat pumps that lift 30 to 50 degree outlet to district levels. Pair with seasonal thermal storage, pits or aquifers, so winter warmth rides on summer compute. Every megawatt becomes megawatts plus megajoules. That decarbonizes buildings while funding grid upgrades. Do this and Europe exports a new product: compute that heats homes. Call it civic AI. Less talk about sovereignty, more steel in the ground. The region that aligns thermodynamics with public benefit will set the pace for the next decade.