The European Union is opening the door to seven new AI gigafactories with up to €10 billion ($11.5 billion) in public funding, marking its biggest infrastructure push yet as it tries to catch up with the United States and China in the global artificial intelligence race.
The European Commission on Thursday launched a call for tenders for the projects, saying the funding will be matched by at least €20 billion in private investment, bringing the expected total investment to more than €30 billion.
The initiative expands an earlier plan for up to five gigafactories after strong interest from EU countries and industry.
The facilities will join Europe's existing network of 19 AI factories and are designed to give startups, researchers, businesses, universities and public agencies access to large-scale computing power needed to train, fine-tune and run advanced AI models, according to the European Commission.
The planned gigafactories will combine advanced AI processors, cloud infrastructure, software stacks, high-speed networking and energy-efficient data centers.
The projects will be funded jointly by the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) and participating member states. Eighteen EU countries have already signed a joint procurement agreement to support the initiative.
Under the program, up to four projects could receive as much as €500 million each in EU funding across two development phases, while three larger projects could receive up to €1 billion each. The largest sites will ultimately deploy several times more advanced AI processors than Europe's current most powerful AI factory.
Applications are open to consortia that include technology companies, cloud providers, investors and public organizations. The tender closes on November 12, with winners expected in early 2027. Construction is scheduled to begin next year, and selected facilities are expected to become operational within 18 months after contracts are signed.
US chipmakers back the effort
To help ensure access to AI hardware, the Commission has signed letters of intent with AMD, Nvidia and Qualcomm, allowing project consortia to source advanced chips while also leaving room for European suppliers and startups to participate in the supply chain.
The Commission said AI systems developed in the facilities will follow EU rules on data protection, safety, security and ethics.
Highlighting the need for more computing capacity, EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said, "Access to the raw scale of computing power within AI Gigafactories is a strategic necessity for Europe as AI development accelerates."
Europe still faces an uphill battle
The investment reflects Europe's growing concern that it remains heavily dependent on US cloud providers and AI infrastructure while China continues expanding its own computing capacity.
The Commission hopes the new facilities will strengthen Europe's technological sovereignty by allowing advanced AI models to be developed on infrastructure based within the bloc rather than relying on overseas providers.
However, Europe still faces significant challenges. The region imports most advanced AI chips, electricity costs are generally higher than in the US and China, and large data center projects often face scrutiny over their electricity and water consumption.
Long-term commercial demand will also be a key test, with bidders required to demonstrate that their proposed business models are financially viable.
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