Introducing the EU’s AI gigafactories initiative

The European Union has revealed its plans to establish up to seven AI Gigafactories across Europe

The AI Gigafactories initiative is supported by up to €10 billion in combined EU and national funding, and is expected to unlock at least €20 billion in additional private investment, creating a programme worth more than €30 billion overall.

Europe’s AI infrastructure

The new AI Gigafactories will provide the computing power needed to develop and deploy advanced AI systems.

Each facility will combine cutting-edge AI processors, cloud technologies, high-speed connectivity and energy-efficient data centres capable of supporting the training, fine-tuning and deployment of next-generation AI models.

The infrastructure will be available to a wide range of users, including start-ups, scale-ups, small and medium-sized businesses, universities, research organisations, public authorities and industry.

The Gigafactories will work alongside Europe’s existing network of 19 AI Factories, increasing the continent’s overall computing capacity while supporting the EU’s goals of technological sovereignty and strategic resilience.

Who can apply?

Applications are open to consortia or Special Purpose Vehicles made up of companies, public organisations, investors and other partners. Projects can be based within a single EU Member State or spread across multiple countries through distributed computing facilities.

The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) will oversee the competitive selection process, with proposals assessed before successful projects are announced.

Funding across two phases

The programme will support up to seven AI Gigafactories through two development phases.

The first funding stream will back up to four projects, each eligible for up to €100 million in EU funding during the initial phase, followed by up to €400 million in the second phase as capacity expands.

A second funding stream will support up to three larger projects, with each eligible for up to €200 million initially and a further €800 million during the expansion phase.

Participating projects will be required to deploy some of the world’s most advanced AI processors, with computing capacity increasing substantially as they move through the programme.

Project consortia will be able to source AI hardware from suppliers based in Europe and other countries, with opportunities for European technology start-ups and scale-ups to participate in procurement.

To help secure access to critical hardware, the European Commission has also signed letters of intent with US technology companies AMD, NVIDIA and Qualcomm, ensuring successful projects can obtain the processors needed to build the new facilities.

What happens next?

Applications for the AI Gigafactories programme will remain open until 12 November 2026.

Following evaluation by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, successful projects are expected to be announced in early 2027. Construction is scheduled to begin later that year, with the first AI Gigafactories expected to become operational within 18 months of contract signing.

Once completed, the facilities are expected to play a central role in expanding Europe’s AI capabilities.