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New EU’s initiatives to support European advanced AI’s infrastructure, the so-called AI gigafactories (AIGFs) are supposed to follow existing European standards on data protection, safety, security and ethics. The initiative, led by industry and supported by the EU-states cooperative €10 billion. is expected to unlock at least €20 billion in private investment. Its ultimate aim is to expand EU-wide AI computing capacity and give the regional governance, corporate community, industry and academia adequate access to advanced AI models and infrastructures.
Background
In summer 2026, the Commission approved a decision that the AI gigafactories in the EU-27 states should be an integral part of the European accelerated digital technological sovereignty forced by an ambition of becoming the “European AI continent”.
The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has already launched a call for tenders to select consortia aimed to build and operate the future AI gigafactories, AIGF. The general opinion is that when AI models are widely used (e.g. private and public sectors can find smarter, faster and more affordable solutions), the AI adoption needs and facilities would be widespread and the support of modern digital would help in speeding-up the process. The AIGFs will combine advanced AI processors, software and cloud technology stacks, high-speed connectivity and energy-efficient data centres.
The European network of 19 AIGFs will strengthen continental technological leadership, resilience and strategic autonomy; thus, the following EU states have signed a joint procurement agreement with the EuroHPC JU: Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden.
Besides, the AIGF’s initiative will ensure the regional development of advanced AI models based on their own digital infrastructure, following existing EU-wide rules and values, e.g. EU standards on data protection, safety, security and ethics. Present Commission’s procurement will support the establishment of seven new AI gigafactories, each equipped with a very large number of state-of-the-art AI processors. These facilities located in seven EU member states, would allow “the possibility of some AIGFs to operate as cross-border collaboration units that deploy infrastructure across one or more EU member states”.
More in the EU continental plan at: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/ai-continent-action-plan
The EU initiatives’ components
Main features in the EU digital infrastructure’s perspectives have been already revealed at Paris AI Action Summit in February 2025. The main elements were: first, European AI “idea” focuses on AI adoption in complex applications, using its unique industrial and manufacturing data and know-how. Second, European AI is cooperative: it brings talents together from different countries, sectors and backgrounds, reflecting the EU “spirit of collaborative approach to “sciences’ achievements”; the latter produced numerous breakthroughs already within the Horizon Europe program. Third, European AI embraces the power of the digital open-source, which can spread much faster, along with proprietary systems.
Hence, keeping in mind all these facilities, the AI start-up scene in the EU-27 has been booming: the number of unicorns has increased by ten times in just a few years. Therefore, this “European brand of open innovation” is showing results, but it now needs to be supercharged, acknowledged the Commission President at the AI summit.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_25_471
Besides, the EU industrial development policy includes plans to build a modern AI infrastructure based on efficient data centers and gigafactories. Already two-thirds of EU-27 have agreed to support the plan to create several “large AI compute hubs”, following the EU-wide ambition to win the global race in the most efficient AIs infrastructures. However, nine EU states have refrained from committing funds facing stretched national budgets.
It is to be noted, that so far, it is the US that is a global leader in providing computing facilities “to feed the world AI boom”, with the digital giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Elon Musk’s xAI private investment projects like Stargate and Colossus (based on their on expanding data centers).
AI gigafactory’s commitments
Prominent European digital companies and corporate investors have already expressed interest in the common digital-data centers: e.g. in Spain, Telefónica and Banco Santander teamed up to take part; however, the criticism is mounting as well, as politicians push back and business often question the gigafactories’ idea. For example, 18 out of 27 EU states have promised to financially support “the project”: e.g. Denmark, Poland and the Czech Republic have all pledged to commit about €100 million for “smaller AIGF”; while Portugal, Spain, Germany, Italy and Greece all plan to finance about €200 million but on “larger gigafactory.”
The most ambitious bid is that of Germany: the country has already committed an additional €800 million to the buildout, bringing the total national contribution to €1 billion.
Other countries have pledged smaller sums, ranging from €50 million in Sweden to as little as €1 million in Lithuania, as they seek a smaller “digital data site” connected to some other “main sites” in the host country; e.g. Croatia, Hungary and Lithuania all back Poland’s bid with a combined €36 million.
The situation on funding the EU-wide AIGFs, provisionally committed by some EU countries, looks the following way: Germany – €1B, Italy – €400M, Greece – €350M, Spain – €250M, Portugal – €200M, Hungary – €125M, Poland – €100M – Czech Republic- €100M, France – €100M, Denmark – €100M, Finland – €100M, Sweden – €50M, Estonia – €20M, Latvia – €15M, Croatia – €10M, Ireland – €10M (for the gigafactory hosted in France), and Lithuania – €1M.
European gigafactory’s project
The Commission President’s initial idea (announced in February 2025) was oriented towards spending EU’s funding to establish seven so-called gigafactories — three larger and four smaller ones; meaning to assist researchers and startups train very large AI models.
Before starting the development of the AI hubs, governments have to commit to buying compute power from their national gigafactories project. Those commitments (totaling around €3 billion) have to match or exceed whatever funding the EU has promised. Their support is key to convincing hesitant private investors that often rely on higher energy prices and longer permitting procedures.
The European Commission is set to select seven projects early next year and support them with an initial €100-200 million depending on the size, followed by another €400-€800 million later on. In mid-July, the Polish Council of Ministers adopted a resolution to approve Poland’s €100 million commitment; Lithuania’s commitment was also approved mid-July.
The actual investment comes only when the gigafactories are operational, and when the government becomes a “guaranteed customer”. “There is a setup period of up to 18 months during which the facility is configured, deployed and prepared for operation … Public payments start only at that point”, a spokesperson for the Irish Department for Further and Higher Education said. Ireland has pledged €10 million to a gigafactory hosted by France.
The Commission plans to select the winning bids in early 2027, after which the factories can be built during the next year-and-a-half: it means many governments will only have to start paying in 2028, with payments spread out over the following five years.
Source and citation from: https://www.politico.eu/article/ai-race-splits-europe-into-spenders-and-laggards-eu-gigafactory/
Notes on gigafactories. The EuroHPC JU and several of its participating states will jointly procure compute access time from the selected AI gigafactories. AIGFs. These facilities represent a major investment in Europe’s AI future, strengthening technological leadership, resilience and strategic autonomy through cutting-edge AI computing infrastructure built and operated in Europe. AI gigafactories, together with other AI factories, will make AI computing and services available to public and private users’ resident in EuroHPC participating states, significantly expanding current available compute capacity through a new generation of large-scale sovereign AI computing infrastructure, strengthening innovation, competitiveness and technological independence.
More on European AIGFs in: https://www.integrin.dk/2026/08/04/european-gigantic-ai-factories-towards-continental-digital-sovereignty/
The advantages of the EU’s initiative are really fascinating: the AI gigafactories will be advanced industrial digital facilities: located in the EU countries, they will combine massive computing power with state-of-the-art AI processors along with the necessary software and cloud technology stacks, high bandwidth connectivity and energy-efficient data centres. Led by industry, the AIGFs will strengthen European AI system by expanding computing capacity and driving service-oriented models that will enable large-scale frontier AI training, fine-tuning and inference services making it easier and more affordable for public and private sector users.
More in: https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/eurohpc-joint-undertaking-launches-ai-gigafactories-call-2026-07-30_en