The European Commission’s Call for AI Gigafactories to Boost Europe’s Technological Independence

The European Commission has initiated a call for tenders to establish up to seven AI Gigafactories across Europe, marking a significant advancement in its efforts to enhance the region’s AI capabilities and technological independence.

Delivered through the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), this initiative is supported by up to €10bn in combined EU and national funding, with an expected additional €20bn in private investment.

These new facilities will serve as vital computing infrastructure for the development of next-generation AI models, catering to businesses, researchers, and public organizations across Europe.

Designed to complement Europe’s existing network of 19 AI Factories, the AI Gigafactories will significantly increase access to advanced AI computing resources, facilitating the development of cutting-edge AI systems within the region under EU standards for security, ethics, and data protection.

Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy, expressed her satisfaction with the landmark investment, stating that the opening of the AI Gigafactories call represents a milestone in Europe’s AI Continent ambitions.

Enhancing Europe’s AI Infrastructure with AI Gigafactories

The upcoming AI Gigafactories will integrate advanced AI processors with cloud technology, high-performance software stacks, high-speed connectivity, and energy-efficient data centers, enabling the training, inference, and fine-tuning of frontier AI models at an unprecedented scale.

These facilities are expected to play a crucial role in boosting Europe’s technological sovereignty by ensuring that advanced AI systems are developed using European infrastructure, reducing reliance on overseas computing capacity.

Access to the infrastructure will be open to a wide range of users, including start-ups, scale-ups, SMEs, industrial organizations, universities, research institutes, and public authorities.

Two-Phase Funding Program for AI Gigafactories

The procurement program will support up to seven AI Gigafactories through two funding lots and two development phases.

The first lot will fund up to four projects, with successful applicants eligible for up to €100m in EU funding during phase one and up to €400m in phase two.

The second lot will support up to three larger projects, each potentially receiving up to €200m in phase one and an additional €800m in phase two.

Public investment aims to mitigate financial risks and encourage significant private sector investment required for constructing and operating these large-scale facilities.

Consortium Applications Now Open for AI Gigafactories

Consortia or Special Purpose Vehicles bringing together businesses, investors, public bodies, and other partners are invited to apply for the AI Gigafactories projects.

Projects may be situated within a single EU Member State or span multiple locations, with cross-border proposals involving distributed computing facilities also being considered.

The European Commission anticipates that the competitive selection process will identify projects capable of delivering top-tier AI computing infrastructure while supporting Europe’s broader digital economy.

Broad Support from Participating Member States

The procurement process is a collaborative effort between the EuroHPC JU and participating Member States, which will procure computing access from the selected AI Gigafactories once operational.

Eighteen countries have signed the joint procurement agreement, aiming to maximize shared investment and ensure access to computing capacity necessary for accelerating AI research and innovation.

Hardware Partnerships to Facilitate Deployment

Recognizing the importance of specialized computing hardware for advanced AI, the Commission has confirmed that successful consortia can source processors and related technology from suppliers in Europe and other like-minded countries.

Part of the procurement process may be reserved for European start-ups and scale-ups to strengthen the continent’s AI supply chain.

Following the recent EU-US trade agreement, the Commission has partnered with AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm to ensure selected projects have reliable access to the advanced hardware essential for constructing these facilities.

Construction Targeted for 2027

The call for proposals is set to close on 12 November 2026, with funding decisions expected in early 2027 and construction slated to commence the same year.

The selected AI Gigafactories are projected to become operational within 18 months of contract signing, significantly expanding Europe’s sovereign AI computing capacity and reinforcing the EU’s competitiveness in the global AI landscape.